A Youngstown angel

By KALEA HALL

khall@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Inside an old fire station at the corner of Fruit and Oak streets is a woman all of 5 feet tall with a spitfire attitude and heart of gold.

Annie Hall, 85, has turned the inside of the fire station on the East Side given to her by the city into a retail store for the needy.

But those in need don’t have to pay. They just have to call Hall or knock on the door and tell her what they need.

“Every community needs

people like Annie ... the sort of the angels of the community,” said Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally. “She is a work horse. She really is an angel. We could certainly use more Annies, but true to her nature, there’s only one Annie.”

Hall runs the East Side Crime Watch inside the old fire station. She also organizes National Night Out for the city.

“It feels good,” she said of giving. “It makes me sleep better at night.”

Hall actually plans on retiring next year, or so she says. But everyone tells her she can’t go anywhere.

She’s been in Youngstown since 1969. The South Carolina native still has the sweet southern charm, but she’s also got the moxie that will straighten you out if you need it.

She spent some time in New York working for retailer Robert Hall in the 1950s. Her grandmother taught her how to sew, and that trade helped her in life and her career.

“I grew up poor,” she said. “We had to make our own clothing.”

When Hall came to Youngstown, she made coats for a coat factory and then went on to get a job with Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co.

Her career with block watches began in the early 1980s. Hall was the president of all the Youngstown block watches for years, but now she just oversees the East Side Block Watch, where she has been president for 21 years.

“The purpose of it is to look out for the neighborhood,” Hall said. “The block watch is the eyes and ears of the police.”

Hall has been a giver her whole life, but when she came to Youngstown she noticed a need to give more.

“I used to see kids without coats or shoes,” she said.

So, 19 years ago, she started a clothing giveaway with three or four garments. The city gave her the old station to use while still covering the cost of the utilities.

“They don’t have to check on me because they know what I’m doing,” she said.

Annie stops, touches her heart and says, “It makes me feel good. They trust me to have things in this building. I try to do things the right way.”

Doing things the “right way,” means making sure the clothes are sorted just right, the food is stocked and ready for when someone needs a bag, and the Christmas gifts for children are labeled and wrapped correctly.

“She thinks about the way to wrap [the gifts],” said Donna Harris, an East Side resident and volunteer at the block watch. “She thought real long and hard about it.”

Last Saturday, Hall and her volunteers gave out 125 children’s coats with toys. Donations made it possible to buy the coats, and Hall did the shopping for them. When she’s done shopping, she makes sure each donor gets a copy of the receipt – yet another way she does things “right.”

When Annie needs something, people answer. That’s because she doesn’t call unless it’s necessary and it’s for the benefit of the people she helps.

One time she called Bob Burke, the city’s park and recreation director, because she needed a truck. A donor in Cleveland was going to give pounds and pounds of chocolate away. The multi-passenger van was filled with chocolate.

“Annie’s mission is to give back to the community,” Burke said. “Without her, the city would be less off.”

Burke met Hall in 2012 and likened her to his grandmother, who also had a giving heart.

“I just fell in love with her passion,” Burke said. “I have to make sure she stays and continues this type of work because there’s no one else out there like that.”

Hall spends her days inside the fire station that’s open from 9:30 a.m. to

4 p.m. Monday through Friday with her volunteers. The volunteers crack jokes about the way Hall runs the place with guts and gusto. They enjoy spending their time with Hall and spending their time giving.

“She’s very organized,” said Diane Williams, a North Side resident and volunteer. “She’s about business and you have to be about it, too. I like to see the joy it brings. It makes you feel good to be a part of helping someone else.”

There was a time Hall considered leaving Youngstown, but then she thought: “I know where I am at, but I don’t know where I am going. ... Is it a good place, a better place?”

She thinks the city is going in a better direction now. If she sees something happening in her city that she doesn’t like, she’s not afraid to pick up the phone and call the police.

“I try to take care of my community,” Hall said.