The Homewood Star Volume 4 | Issue 6 | September 2014
HHS to Big Ten
neighborly news & entertainment for Homewood
A second chance at
childhood
Fighting for Homewood to remain home for Moussa Diallo By SYDNEY CROMWELL Homewood graduate and University of Nebraska running back Ameer Abdullah is in the running for the Heisman trophy.
Feature page B1
Say hello
Barry Wise Smith is the new Ward 4 Place 1 city council representative. Learn more about her inside.
City page A7
INSIDE
Like most 12-year-olds, Moussa Diallo doesn’t know what he wants to do when he grows up. He might be a basketball star, sell boats or maybe become a pilot like the man who saved his life. What Moussa doesn’t want, however, is to return to begging for money and food on the streets of Dakar, Senegal. He has only been in the U.S. for a year, but Homewood is his home. Worst of the worst Born in Bamako, Mali, Moussa came to Dakar as a toddler with his little sister, grandfather and step-grandmother. He begged for money and food to stay alive, but Moussa also suffered from a severe cross-eye and dystonia, a neurological disorder affecting his muscle movement. Although he was one of many children on the streets, something about this particular 4-year-old stood out to Neal Schier when he visited Dakar in 2006. “We use the words ‘desperate’ or ‘critical’ for some of these children. It really was,” Schier said. “He was really in a worst of the worst situation.” Schier came to the country as an Air Force Reserve officer and could not get the boy out of his mind. He returned home to Pennsylvania but began paying a friend to provide for Moussa, first with a daily meal and then with a home when Moussa’s family could not care for him. In 2010, Lauren Livingston, a college friend living in Homewood, called Schier out of the blue. When she heard about Moussa, Livingston was
See MOUSSA | page A19
Moussa is now 12 years old and a sixth-grader at Homewood Middle School. Neal Schier is trying to get him a permanent visa and find him an adoptive family so Moussa can stay in Homewood. Photo by Karim Shamsi-Basha.
Under review
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Unconventional house creates debate over design review board By SYDNEY CROMWELL
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The proposed modern design for Mike Gibson’s house created negative reactions from his neighbors, leading to the discussion of a design review board. Image courtesy of Mike Gibson.
The news upset resident Gina Pearson. When she heard a historic home on her street could be replaced with a modern, two-story structure, she distributed fliers to her neighbors about what she called a “design experiment.” Pearson and other neighbors on Sutherland Place’s sentiments have sparked a discussion in City Hall over the possible need for a design review board. Mike Gibson, president of the design-build firm Appleseed Workshop, acknowledged his planned home design is not universally popular. However, he said his house appraises for $600,000 and will
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