Jennifer and Mary Beth have been neighbors since 2016, and friends since that summer when they met at the neighborhood pool. Mary Beth’s daughter heard Jennifer talking about being in the Peace Corps and said, “My mom was in the Peace Corps too!” The rest is history.

In 2025, they began attending River City Poets, and in the summer started a neighborhood poetry salon. Wanting to bring more poetry to the community, they created the Chesterfield Poetry Collective in 2026!