Denise Reid
Neighborhood: Druid Heights
“Everything I do, there’s no fee. Because our City is worth it. The community is worth it. Our children are worth it.”
Denise Reid has served her neighborhoods of Baltimore, Maryland since 1977, from the age of thirteen years old. She graduated July 29th, 2016 from the Baltimore Police Chaplaincy Academy. Denise was bestowed at Western District Chaplains as District Communications Coordinator.
Her parents instilled the importance of helping neighbors and respecting their elders. Denise was afforded the opportunity to nurture youth in her Sandtown, Winchester community, as a Summer Youth Enrollee Counselor in 1978 to young adulthood. Denise dedicated thirty–four years in parent volunteerism with the Baltimore City Public School System starting in 1989. Her compassion to uplift others allowed Denise to be named Survivor Membership (co-lead) for Moms Demand Action Maryland (GVP), a gun violence prevention organization in 2018.
Her faith was challenged and strengthened after Tavon Terrell Waters Sr.’s only son was shot on October 18th, 2006 at twenty–three years young. During this unfathomable event, she became a mother on April 7th, 2006 to her daughter Jaazaniah Dibri, and grandmother to her first grandchild, Tavon Jr., December 24, 2006. The Book of Jude (verse 24a) was the scripture that sustained Denise and epitomized her character.
After forty-six years of advocacy in Baltimore City, her spirit is symbolic of the ‘lotus flower” (light and beauty out of dark places), strength, overcoming adversity, resilience and rebirth.
