Q&A: MYRA DANIELS

What does it mean to you to be an American?

It means the opportunity to help build our country, the opportunity to help others. It means the opportunity to work the way I want to work. It’s a freedom. The freedom of America is very important to me. My grandparents immigrated from Romania. They came and they succeeded in America in every way. They learned the language. They worked. They gave as much as they got.

What moment touched and motivated you to launch this effort?

Knowing how many children are on the streets in Naples after school. There are 10,000. They’re latchkey kids. Their parents work. Knowing how much trouble they can get into. We have to support them. I think we’ll take some of them off the street. We won’t have all of them, but we’ll have several handfuls. Some of these kids never get encouragement. You have to encourage kids. We’re going to encourage them in the arts. We’re going to encourage them in the classroom.

What gives you hope or what concerns you?

What concerns me is we have never had so much confusion coming out of Washington. I have hope, incidentally. I think we need to stand behind those we have elected until we see where they are going. We have to pull together as a country. We are the best country in the world, in my experience, but we have some flaws we need to fix.

What do you hope to accomplish through your efforts?

I just hope I can add something to the community. I hope I can make it a better community, a happier community, a brighter community. When you look at these kids, you have the chance to mold minds. I have a lot of help, by the way. There are a lot of dedicated volunteers working on this.