![\"barret\"](\"https:\/\/sduptownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/barret.jpg\" "\\"barret\\"")
<\/a> She drives elderly neighbors to their doctor appointments. She invites families over for Sunday dinners. She shows movies in her backyard, inviting everyone and anyone. This San Diego native is the Mother Theresa of her little cul-de-sac neighborhood in Kensington.<\/p>\n\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s a person in our area that hasn\u2019t been touched by her kindness and her love and her care,\u201d said Zoa Winter, Barrett\u2019s neighbor, who has lived in Kensington on and off since 1945. \u201cI\u2019ve never met anyone like her.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barrett is involved with community activities and also busies herself with her own philanthropies to better her neighborhood. She is the chairwoman of the Neighborhood Watch program, she organized a neighborhood electronic newsletter, and she runs the neighborhood\u2019s fire safe council. She has an open house party and bike ride every New Year’s Day, she holds outdoor movie nights during the summer, she gets the neighborhood kids on a float in Kensington\u2019s Memorial Day parades, she throws ice cream socials and kids’ talent shows, she takes care of people\u2019s pets while they\u2019re away, she brings food to nearby seniors, organizes block parties and makes sure every new resident is pleasantly greeted.<\/p>\n
Bev \u2013 the name everyone calls her \u2013 grew up in Hillcrest and graduated from San Diego High School. She retired five years ago after working in public education as a special education teacher, a high school principal and, lastly, a director of public personnel service. She raised four children and has been married to her husband, Terry Frey, for 11 years. They moved into their current house in Kensington 10 years ago.<\/p>\n
When Barrett steps into her front yard, neighbors walking their dogs stop to talk to her and children ask her if she can play with them. She\u2019s popular, lively and her neighbors want to voice their gratitude for her sacrifices.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe is just the most loving, giving, big-hearted person I\u2019ve ever met,\u201d said Winter. \u201cThe whole neighborhood feels the same way.\u201d<\/p>\n
What may be the best thing about her? She\u2019s tirelessly modest.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not really about us, it\u2019s the people in the neighborhood,\u201d Barrett said. \u201cIf you need anything, they\u2019re always right there.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said the neighbors as a collective group are what make their neighborhood such a great place to live. \u201cMaybe I\u2019ve instigated some things, but the neighbors carry them off,\u201d she said. Barrett said her neighbors are the heroes because they\u2019re the ones who donate, show up and help arrange activities and events.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe doesn\u2019t take enough credit,\u201d said Frey, who is a biology professor and chair of the biology department at San Diego State University. \u201cIf she wasn\u2019t here, nothing would happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barrett became the self-appointed chairwoman of the Neighborhood Watch program because no one else took the job. She designed a special greeting game for new residents, in which she surprises them with a plastic flamingo or a lawn fairy decoration and a welcoming letter. She makes black-eyed peas and greens every New Year\u2019s Day (which she got from her grandmother\u2019s southern tradition to bring in luck and money for the new year) and invites the whole neighborhood to feast. She even saved a neighbor\u2019s wife from choking, because she knows CPR and was able to get there before the ambulance.<\/p>\n
Barrett said she and Frey will never move away. \u201cIt\u2019s such a great place to grow old,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re entrenched.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not only because of the couple\u2019s beautiful home — which has a large backyard garden and two spacious balconies with a deep canyon view that would keep anyone from moving — but they adore the friendly and caring vibe of the neighborhood. Barrett said there were neighbors who made sure the elderly residents had a place to go during the 2007 fires, and another neighbor leads Sunday morning bike rides for whoever wishes to join him. One neighbor once jumped multiple fences to save her grandson from being attacked by wasps.<\/p>\n
Barrett feels her neighborhood is unique because of the variety of ages, ethnicities and socioeconomic groups. Although there are about 200 houses in her corner of Kensington, Barrett said there is only one way in and out of the neighborhood, so it stays separated from outside traffic.<\/p>\n
In front of Barrett\u2019s home is an herb garden that is helpfully labeled. It has a sign that tells passers-by to take whatever they\u2019d like. She grows fruits and vegetables in the backyard and passes out the surplus produce to her neighbors. Barrett\u2019s garden is symbolic of her character: it is there for the neighbors\u2019 gain and ensures they won\u2019t leave empty-handed.<\/p>\n
If you pass on Barrett\u2019s Sunday dinner offer, she’ll make sure you leave with a paper bag full of her plump, homegrown tomatoes. Then expect Frye to smile at you and say, \u201cThat\u2019s just how she is with everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amanda Strouse is a freelance journalist in San Diego.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
All the difference one woman can make By Amanda Strouse Beverly Barrett is the neighbor you wish you had. She drives elderly neighbors to their doctor appointments. She invites families over for Sunday dinners. She shows movies in her backyard, inviting everyone and anyone. This San Diego native is the Mother Theresa of her little […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":242985,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Beverly Barrett: Kensington's Super Citizen","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-242984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}