By ALLISON WISK

neighborsgo editor

Growing up in East Dallas’ Hollywood Heights, neighborsgo contributor Amy Hunt never envisioned that she’d beliving in North Dallas years later.   

A graduate of Woodrow Wilson High School, the laid backWhite Rock Lake area was always home base for Hunt, who now considers herSparkman Club Estates neighborhood the only place she’d hang her hat.

“My search started and ended with Sparkman,” said Hunt, whowas introduced to the neighborhood by her college friend, Dallas Observer’s Robert Wilonsky. “My husband and I were like,‘Wow, what a great neighborhood.’” We looked at other neighborhoods but if itwasn’t in Sparkman, I really wasn’t interested.”

With two daughters enrolled at highly rated DeGolyerElementary School, Hunt found the value of the nearby public schools aproposition she couldn’t refuse.

“I think that Dallas ISD offers a lot of options,” saidHunt, who served as PTA president for the 2007-08 school year. “I really likethe diversity. I don’t want to shelter my children so much that they don’t seethe real world. I’ve been able to get involved in a way I don’t think I couldhave in another situation.”

Making her living in freelance public relations, Hunt gother start as a reporter for publications such as Texas Lawyer and Legal Times. Now, it is her writing that keeps her busy spreading the good newsabout the school and neighborhood she holds close to her heart.

“I like knowing all of my neighbors,” said Hunt. “I had afriend come down from Plano for our July 4 parade, and he was amazed that Iknew all of these people who were on the floats and passing by. He was like,‘How do you know all these people?’ and I said, ‘They’re my neighbors, that’swhy!’ He didn’t know a soul where he lived, and that made me sad. I absolutelylove it here. It’s very down to earth.”