By Allison Hersh
For Coastal Senior

John Carrington photo
Virgina and Dan Mobley have dedicated most of their lives, and continue to work hard, to improve their community around Thomas Square.

Dan and Virginia Mobley continue to be catalysts for change in the Thomas Square neighborhood.

For Dan and Virginia Mobley, the Thomas Square neighborhood in midtown Savannah is more than just a place to live. It is a place they are proud to call home. Indeed, the Mobleys have devoted much of their lives to improving the quality of life in their neighborhood, demonstrating the degree to which people can make a difference in their community at any age.

Virginia, 58, was born and raised in a yellow two-story Victorian home at 38th and Abercorn streets that is full of memories. She remembers walking her neighbor's dogs for a nickel and playing with the 22 other children who lived on her block. She remembers spending her first allowance at a corner store on Habersham Street, buying so many pickles that she made herself sick.

She married her husband Dan, now 61, in 1963 at Sacred Heart Church, located nearby on Bull Street, and raised three daughters - Susan, Majorie and Laura - in the same house where she grew up. Today, their daughter Susan, son-in-law Butch and two granddaughters live across the street. Virginia's mother, Lillie Little, lives right next door.

The Mobleys love Thomas Square and wouldn't dream of living anywhere else.

"I think it's comfortable and convenient," says Dan. "The relationship on our block is like a small country town - everybody knows everybody."

It's the kind of place where neighbors help each other hang Christmas lights, get together for Fourth of July parties and borrow a stick of butter or a drill bit if the need should arise.

Twenty years ago, however, the neighborhood was in rapid decline. Crime was on the rise and many elderly Thomas Square residents were afraid to venture outside.

"You didn't see people sitting out on their front porches anymore," Virginia recalls. "I saw that whole way of life slipping away."

In 1987, the Mobleys decided to create a neighborhood association to bring people together and to encourage a dialogue between neighbors about the state of the neighborhood.

As the president of the Thomas Square Neighborhood Association, Virginia helped forge a grass roots contingent to effect change in the neighborhood.

"The neighborhood association gave people the idea that they can do something about what goes on in their community," she says. "That it was up to them to decide."

Under the Mobleys' leadership, community members undertook one of the neighborhood association's first projects - to clean up the long-neglected railroad tracks near 39th and Lincoln Street.

"The grass was waist high," Dan recalls, "so we got together and cut it down with pushmowers and weed eaters and hauled it all away." The organization also began maintaining other neighborhood parks and common areas, cleaning up trash and beautifying the neighborhood.

A former volunteer liaison between the Savannah Police Department and the community at large, Virginia has fought many battles over the years, arguing for streetlights on side streets in Thomas Square, curb cuts to make streets more accessible for the handicapped and a host of other changes that have improved the quality of life in her neighborhood.

"The city has made us fight and grovel for every change that has taken place," she says. "I've had to do the research to support the changes here. It's been the battle of the community."

When Virginia reflects on her neighborhood activism, she considers her most significant success to be her crusade to keep the public library in its original location on Bull Street. She amassed more than 3,800 signatures on a petition to keep the library in the Thomas Square neighborhood, which she proudly presented to county officials. After a heated vote by the Chatham County Commission, the decision was made to keep the library on Bull Street and to undertake a multi-million dollar restoration and expansion of the facility, which was finally completed in 1999.

"I still get goosebumps every time I go in the library," she admits. "It still boggles my mind that it was something I could change."

The Mobleys believe profoundly in the importance of giving back the the community, particularly later in life.

"You can always make a difference," says Virginia. "But when you're older, you have the freedom and the time to give to projects. You also have the knowledge you've gained throughout a lifetime of experience."

Together, Dan and Virginia also serve as part of the Red Cross Disaster Action Team, responding to emergencies in a seven-county area. Once their children had grown, they found themselves with extra time on their hands, wondering how they could help others together. As Red Cross volunteers for the past eight years, they have responded to disasters ranging from tornadoes in Sylvania to house fires in Savannah.

"Becoming disaster volunteers has given us the opportunity to be hands on - to give that hug or that support that someone needs in a time of crisis," says Virginia.

As the production manager at Oglethorpe Marble and Granite, a company started by Virginia's grandfather, George B. Little Sr., in 1907, Dan admits that he is not looking forward to retiring.

"I enjoy what I do," he says. "I meet a lot of people and really enjoy going to work every day."

Living in a retirement community in Florida with a view of the golf course has little appeal for the Mobleys. With deep family ties to their neighborhood, the Mobleys believe profoundly in the power of the individual to effect change. But that change, it seems, begins with one's relationship to one's community.

"There is a major difference between existing and living in an area," says Dan. "You can exist in an area because you live there and you work there and that's all you ever do - with no interaction with the community. Or you can live in an area and get involved in things that affect the quality of life around you."

Clearly the Mobleys believe in the latter approach, devoting much of their lives to improving their neighborhood and the community at large. "You can't just take all of your life," says Dan.