Award Honors Neighbors You Can Count On

CARROLLWOOD - For nearly seven years, Tom and Irene Collins have chauffeured their chronically ill neighbor, babysat her daughter, watched her house and even supervised emergency repairs on the house while she and her husband were out of town.

Still, Tom Collins is genuinely puzzled that he should be nominated, let alone win, Hillsborough County's 2004 Lonnie Lea Napier Good Neighbor Award.

Collins, a retired superintendent for the New York City Transit Authority, downplayed the work he and Irene have done for Bonnie and Benjamin Miele.

“I'd like to thank my neighbors Bonnie and Ben,” Collins said. “But I don't think we've done anything to merit any award.”

The couple will receive their award at the Hillsborough County Annual Neighborhoods Conference on March 12.

The winner of the Lonnie Lea Napier Good Neighbor Award is selected each December. The award was named for a county resident, noted for his compassion and helpfulness, who lost his life in 2001 while trying to rescue a neighbor's cat from a tree.

The award includes a $2,000 grant, which may be spent however the recipients choose, to improve their neighborhoods.

Past recipients include Mark and Cathi Towns, who helped a neighbor during a dog attack; Robert Seamon, for helping a single mother in his community; and Don Berger, for fighting crime in Seffner.

To Collins, being a good neighbor means getting to know and helping your neighbors when you can. He lamented the fact that many Americans don't get to know the people who live next door.

“Isn't that sad?” Collins said.

Bonnie Miele nominated the Collinses to honor them for the way they have helped her and her family. Miele, 35, credits the couple for helping her, her husband and their daughter, Briana, while she undergoes treatment for health problems.

“I have a really, really bad case of ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease,” Miele said. “In my case of it, I have an advanced stage where I stopped absorbing all my food altogether.”

At one point, Miele said her weight dropped to 75 pounds.

“I've had most of my colon removed, and I have suffered with two pulmonary embolisms,” Miele said.

Miele said driving her to the hospital during emergencies is among the things the Collinses have done for her. Some of her hospital stays have lasted weeks at a time, even taking her back to her native Massachusetts for treatment with specialists.

It is during these times that Miele said the Collinses went above and beyond by watching her house.

“The house got hit by lightning, the alarm went off, and he took care of that,” Miele said. “A pipe ruptured, and he took care of that.”

“Tom has always been there, and he's been very casual about it,” Miele said.

However, there are many smaller things they have done, Miele said. Irene Collins has given hand-me-downs to Miele's 2-year-old daughter and provided some kitchen goods.

“She's given me some containers, ceramic containers, glasses for my kitchen,” Miele said. “She gave me a fruit and vegetable mixer that was barely used. I love fruits and vegetables, but I can't always have them unless I [liquefy] them.”

Collins humbly remarked that he and his wife, Irene, only want to be good neighbors.

“We don't feel we did something extraordinary,” Collins said. “But we appreciate that she thinks we did.”

Reporter Sean C. Ledig can be reached at (813) 865-1507.

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