We’re looking for your good neighbors

It’s not easy being a bad neighbor.

After drinking and yelling all night, it’s tough to find the energy to crank up the leaf blower at dawn.

It takes practice to get the car onto the lawn and tolerance to drive it without a muffler. And it takes a profound sense of inner peace to smile as the children screech all day, their faces besmeared with mucus and barbecue sauce.

We applaud their hard work, though, because they help us appreciate the joy that a good neighbor brings.

We are again honoring those standout neighbors with our annual Good Neighbor Contest. Judging from the response to past contests, there are lots of wonderful neighbors out there. They are the ones who are standing by with a snowblower when a field of white stands between you and civilization. But they do more than get your mail and feed your cat. They act as a catalyst, transforming a group of strangers into an extended family. For them, property lines aren’t boundaries, they are connections.

Last year, in the Valley, those neighbors were Amy and Jeff Gleaton, the “neighborhood angels,” according to Sandy Westrope who lives next door.

When the Gleatons found out they won the 2005 Good Neighbor contest, they turned down the prize of a block party, and instead had the money donated to victims of Hurricane Katrina.

The Gleatons helped Westrope when she was sick, checked on her pets and helped fix her car.

But the Gleatons don’t view their actions as extraordinary – they say they want to treat others in the same way as they would like to be treated.

“I would rather do something for somebody else than have someone do something for me,” Amy Gleaton said last year.

If you have a neighbor like the Gleatons, let us know. Send us a letter or e-mail of up to 250 words. If your neighbor is chosen as the winner of our 17th annual Good Neighbor Contest, he or she will receive an engraved plaque and be the guest of honor at a catered block party paid for by The Spokesman-Review.