Elizabeth “Libby” Frank is one of the many community heroes working for a better change in the community. Libby grew up in a segregated area called Terithe, Indiana. She was not too fond of high school life. To her it wasn’t so exciting because her school only had the basic core classes and nothing more. She enjoys gardening, reading and sewing. She hopes one day to learn Spanish. She would like to be fluent in Spanish.

LIbby has a way of putting people together. She believes the more people know their neighbors, the better the community will get. She has been volunteering for about 7 or 8 years now. She has done peace work in the community and planted many gardens that brought the community together. She also works with the LSNA. Libby has many successes especially with planting gardens.

Libby has planted many gardens throughout the neighborhood. The programs she has with the gardens are very successful. Another success of Libby’s is having a required military form in a summer packet for her child’s school. Before the school did not give the option to the parents of the students to give the military their child’s information. Libby saw this as an injustice and worked hard to change this so that the parent’s could get this option.

Through Libby’s eyes she sees many injustices facing our community. One injustice includes Kelvyn Parks’s student to counselor ratio. She believes that there should be way more counselors so that a student will always have access to a counselor. Libby wishes the resources we have in the school were better. She also does not prefer to have standardized testing. She hopes that one day there will be no more because “CPS has gone overboard” with the testing. “I think its something you guys should be volunteering for, not something you have to do,” said Libby talking about her views of the program JROTC. Libby would love to change all this but the only person that could do this all is a true hero.

We asked Libby what she thought a true hero includes. She said, “Someone who puts their cause above themselves. Someone who goes beyond the call of duty.” She thinks heroes should be someone who is helpful and dedicated to their work. She thinks true heroes should have great characteristics. To me Libby is all of those things.

I believe that Libby has done some incredible work throughout the neighborhood. To me she is a true hero doing the work she does. One day I hope to plant alongside Libby. She is dedicated to her work and community. I hope one day she is recognized throughout our city as a community hero because that is what she truly is.