Transcript of full Tawaun Whitty interview

"I remember as a child watching leaders in the community help to push for affordable housing, improvement in the infrastructure and beautification projects -- then coming home from college and seeing a lot of that had come to a standstill because a lot of the old leaders had gotten tired. I wanted to continue that movement. I helped organize the annual Gordon Heights Day.

This year we had almost 500 people out, getting back to that old-school feel of it, where the community is like a tight-knit family.

I figured I can either sit back and let someone else do it, or I can do it myself. I was 24 at the start of this. My civic board now consists of people of different ages.

My proudest moment came [last year] when Rep. Tim Bishop (D-Southampton) came to announce that we got almost half a million dollars for sidewalks, to make the downtown safer for kids. That's been something the community has been fighting for for 20 years or more.

You're constantly questioning yourself: Am I doing the right thing? Am I really speaking for my community? Am I really effecting change or am I just making noise? But the fear is overcome when you see the results at the end.

I hope that when people compare our generation to the generations of the past that they look at us and realize that we used the tools that we had. I hope they see we had the same passion, the same drive and the same hopes. Everyone wants the quality of their community to increase. We're starting to call attention to the problem with the sex offenders, who are being dumped here. Coming home from college, I kept getting so many of these pamphlets in the mail saying sex offenders were moving in. How is that going to affect the children of our neighborhood? When is enough, enough? My greatest hope is that the generation that follows us will not only understand what we did and feel that it's worth it, but that it will inspire them to want to continue the fight."