In his State of the City address, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan highlighted a lot of upcoming policy initiatives, but he also took time to shout out someone who’s been making a difference in their own neighborhood.
Her name is Helen Moore and in a few months, her name will be on the outside of the recreation center she’s fought to keep alive and get renovated.
“I was saying to myself it has been a long time to be involved at the center,” Moore said. “Now with my name on it, I have to work even harder.”
Moore has never been at a loss for words as she’s spent a lifetime being a voice for many in Detroit, but after Wednesday’s State of the City address, she was left speechless.
Moore has fought nonstop to get Detroit to make a list of repairs to the Dexter-Elmhurst Recreation Facility. It’s closed now, but knowing how vital it was to the community, she has hounded Duggan to revamp and reopen the center.
Not only will the city completely remodel the center, Duggan announced during the State of the City speech that it will reopen as the Helen Moore Community Center.
“And I’m going to be involved. Even now if they don’t put get the center together like they said they’re going to do, they will hear from me,” Moore said. “We need to have the center right now but I guess we can wait a year but in the meantime, the community suffers.”
Moore said she never considered that the center would be named after her.
“They carried me out, put me in jail and everything and now there’s a center being named after me,” Moore said. “There has got to be a God.”