Another National Award for Valley Junction

As Valley Junction basks in the limelight of its 2012 , Huffington Post has named Betty Hill-Swander its “Greatest Person” for Thursday, April 5.

Hill-Swander, who started buying property in Valley Junction in the 1970s when it was a downtrodden slice of West Des Moines is, perhaps, more responsible than anyone for its turnaround.

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She owned 18 properties at one time in what is now a quaint, turn-of-the-century, charm-oozing shopping district, a compact, eclectic mix of 120 locally and independently owned art, boutique and specialty businesses.

“At the time we were concentrating on buying all this property, most of it on contract, we were really, really spread thin,” she said. “I was thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, I think I have gone too far.’ But I kept my little nose to the grindstone and it all worked out.”

Read the story .

Some previous stories about the great people by the  great storytellers at Iowa Patches include:

: When senior Katie Baum and her peers at West Des Moines Valley High School raised $15,000 to help a grieving family send their son’s body home to Iraq last month, it hadn’t sunk in yet that the same cultural barriers that confound nations had silently fallen along the way.

: In January, Waukee Patch Editor Jody Gifford told the story of Ted Cochran, who received a kidney transplant in 2006. Five years later, he's taking his second chance at life and repaying it through his non-profit My Angel Foundation, which educates others about organ donation.

: Also in January, Ankeny Patch Editor Megan VerHelst told the story of Ankeny's Craig Phinney, who survived colon cancer and turned his illness into a mission to help others.

: In October, Urbandale Patch Editor Ann Carothers-Kay told about the day Raine Arnold went into insulin shock on nd woke up to find that her son was a hero.

To find more stories on people named the Greatest Person, go to: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/greatest-person-of-the-day.