NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) – A father’s tribute to his late son is standing bright once again, thanks to an outpouring of community support.
DeShawn Parker spent years creating and placing free library boxes across Norfolk, Portsmouth, and Chesapeake in honor of his son, Israel Parker, who was hit and killed by a tractor-trailer in Suffolk roughly 10 years ago. DeShawn Parker told 10 On Your Side that Israel would have turned 21 this year.
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“My son was an avid reader… and that’s what this was about,” Parker said. “This was about making his legacy live again, making sure that the kids have space to get books because this used to be a library, but now is not a library anymore.”
Although DeShawn Parker now lives in Texas, he discovered during a visit back in May that one of the library boxes on Park Avenue in Norfolk had been vandalized…