Northeast District

When I was a little girl, I used to wait in the wee hours of the morning for the school bus next to a billboard on North Cliff Avenue. It was dark and cars streamed by heading to and from the blue-collar industry that sprawled across the area. Every so often a car would pull in and out of the Texaco station just kitty-corner across the street. And each afternoon, my well loved bicycle was waiting for me under that billboard to ride back to the house through the potholes of the gravel road. I never thought to be scared of waiting alone, afraid of being close to traffic, or worried about the unknown. 

 

As local small business owners, my parents raised me to believe I was capable of anything I could possibly dream of as long as I worked hard and treated others with respect.

 

I still believe in that - and aspire for every single child raised right here in Sioux Falls to believe that too. 

 

This city, our leaders, and our residents have shown up for me relentlessly in ways I didn’t always know how to ask for, and it's my turn to pay that forward and show up for you.