L.A.’s Neighborhood All-Stars Meet Kenley Jansen

We narrowed the submissions down to four incredible finalists, including: George Contreras, the neighborhood coach; Fred Sornoso, the neighborhood do-gooder; Barbara Gray, the neighborhood philanthropist; and Eric Shepard, the neighborhood connector.

Each of these neighbors joined us today at Belvedere Park’s baseball field with none other than all-star closer Kenley Jansen, who is helping us celebrate what makes a community great: its neighbors.

Thousands of neighbors across Los Angeles voted for their favorite, and we’re happy to announce Nextdoor’s first All-Star winner: Barbara Gray.

Several years ago, Barbara went through physical therapy. After discovering a need for an organization that could pair patients who could not afford physical therapy equipment to people who no longer needed it, she decided to launch Physical Therapy for All, her own non-profit that collects physical therapy equipment and donates it to people in need. Since 2012, her organization has collected and donated over 1,500 pieces of durable medical equipment. As the Neighborhood All-Star winner, we awarded Barbara with $1,000 to give back to her organization. Congratulations to Barbara for being a true all-star neighbor!

The nominations for the All-Star title surpassed our expectations, and we could not be more proud to recognize each of them for the work they’ve done. To honor all of our incredible finalists, we’re awarding each of them with $250 to continue helping their communities.

George plans to use the money to purchase much-needed basketball gear for his team and keep the gym doors open so that he can continue to offer this program to more kids in the future. Fred will donate the money to the local elementary school in his neighborhood to purchase percussion instruments so all of the students have the opportunity to play music in the new fine arts program. Finally, Eric plans to host a networking event for his neighbors and the local businesses as well as donate a portion to a dear friend’s daughter who is battling a life-threatening illness.

We’re proud to support these neighbors in their efforts to help their communities and improve the lives of their neighbors. From all of us at Nextdoor, thank you to our finalists and Kenley Jansen for working to build stronger, safer, and happier communities.

https://youtu.be/Ag6j6kmTlpM

---

Join your neighborhood on Nextdoor here.

Do you have a story about how you’ve used Nextdoor in your neighborhood? Let us know.