The Lowell Sun

May 12, 2003

DANA WILLHOIT, Sun Staff

LOWELL In Nancy Diaz Moore's hands, a twirling rope is more than a childish toy. It is a community-builder, a self-esteem booster, a safe haven in the afternoon. Once a week after school, a dozen or so teenage girls gather at the United Teen Equality Center on Kirk Street to learn the ropes. They are there to master the art of Double Dutch, in which two people twirl jump-ropes in alternating rhythm while one or more people jump in the middle. Once a childhood game, it has evolved into an international sport in which teams travel and compete for prizes.

Some day, Diaz Moore, who teaches the Double Dutch class, would like to see the UTEC Jumpers compete. Right now, she is content to give the girls a place to make new friends and do something positive after school.

"She uses the program as a way of building teamwork," said Gregg Croteau, executive director of UTEC. "She takes the girls to competitions on her own time so they can learn new moves and be inspired.

"She's done a really nice job with our outreach program," Croteau added. "She's made flyers and dropped them off at schools and community centers."

Diaz Moore has rules for the girls in her class.

"If you're going to be in here, you're going to be treated with respect," she said. "Most of them can't jump when they start out. If you're making fun of someone that doesn't have good self-esteem in the first place..." she shakes her head. It's not going to happen. And "if you use bad language, you're out."

Also forbidden are hoop earrings they could get tangled in the jump-ropes and low-cut jeans, which show a flash of thong underwear.

In her class, "They've become ladies. They talk very nicely to each other."

Her enthusiasm is contagious. In a recent class, Masada Jones, 15, a Lowell High student who has been taking the class for a little over a year, said she likes to help teach now because, as she says, "you get to help people."

In her very first class, she looked at the long ropes whipping through the air and didn't think she could do it. "I was scared. I thought it was going to hit me."

Now, Jones is self-confident enough to urge a timid new student, "Just when the rope is up, go. You have to chance it ..."

Diaz Moore has been doing Double Dutch with her sisters since she was a little girl, when they would cut lengths of clothesline and jump and chant rhymes in their back yard. When her younger daughter started spending time at UTEC, she started volunteering there, and suggested Double Dutch as a positive activity for girls.

Diaz Moore has been sidelined for a couple of months because of surgery on her foot, but she often stops by to say hi to the girls, who are being taught by a UTEC staff member and a couple of the more advanced students, for now. She hopes to be back teaching soon, though.

"I'm going crazy sitting around the house," she said on a recent spring afternoon.

Diaz Moore is not used to sitting around. She is used to working full time at Ma/Com in mechanical assembly, getting out at 2:30 and heading to UTEC or any number of other volunteer positions. She is a member of the Lowell Black Network and organizes Easter-egg hunts, organizes dances and visits the elderly.

"I was raised that way," she said. "You check on the elderly and see how they're doing, see if they need anything."

An elderly neighbor of hers has cancer and can't eat solid food; she purees his favorite food, sweet potatoes, for him.

"If I can make a difference, I will make a difference," Diaz Moore said.

A lifelong Lowell resident, she grew up as part of a family of four brothers and four sisters. Now, with two grown daughters of her own and 27 nieces and nephews, "I'm the auntie of them all. My house is the community gathering place."

She credits her faith in God and her upbringing for her urge to do community outreach. "I can't live if I can't keep the faith."

Dana Willhoit's e-mail address is dwillhoit@lowellsun.com .