2 minute read
95 Hours of Service
95Hours of Service
by: Marshall McFadden
The Junior League of Charlotte, Inc. (JLC) has served and impacted the Charlotte community for 95 years. In celebration of this milestone, the JLC initiated their 95 Hours of Continuous Service Campaign that ran from November 15 to November 19 of 2020. The campaign appropriately kicked off on National Philanthropy Day. For 95 hours straight, JLC members worked to make an impact in the Charlotte community.
During these 95 hours, JLC members volunteered with various community partners and other nonprofit organizations. They made flashcards for Classroom Central, created bookmarks and donated books to Promising Pages and wrote letters of encouragement to local teachers. Members also packed up food for 250 families and staff at Reid Park Academy, sorted through items at Second Harvest Food Bank and put together snack bags for Bright Blessings USA. Other projects included organizing the library at Sugar Creek Charter School, creating video messages for ParentChild+ and making videos for the children at Thompson Child and Family Focus.
During this campaign, JLC members learned so much about their community partners and how much these organizations appreciated their support.
Elizabeth “Betsy” Myers, who volunteered at Second Harvest Food Bank, said “I learned that while Second Harvest does have employees, their volunteers allow them to save a lot of money on labor which is how they can afford to provide food to so many people in our community. So without volunteers from the JLC and in the community, many of our neighbors would go hungry.”
After volunteering at Reid Park Academy and Thompson Child & Family Focus, Caroline Will spoke on her experience and said “After participating in these projects, especially at Reid Park Academy, it is humbling to see how much need there is in our community, and how by working together we can truly make an impact. To be able to see the people we were helping and how many lives we touched was amazing.”
Since 1926, the JLC has donated over $13.7 million in grants and special projects and provided more than 1.6 million volunteer hours to the Charlotte community.
252 JLC members collectively gave 449 volunteer hours to the Charlotte community
16 members assembling hygiene and snack kits for Bright Blessings 48 members writing words of encouragement for teachers and creating flashcard sets for Classroom Central
37 members donating books and creating bookworm buddies for Promising Pages
29 members creating video messages of encouragement for ParentChild+ 27 members organizing and separating items at Second Harvest Food Bank
34 members creating short videos teaching a skill or telling a story to kids ages 6 to 9 for Thomson Child and Family Focus
53 members supplying $5,000 worth of food to pack meals for 250 families and staff at Reid Park Academy
A diaper drive culminating in over $2,000 worth of diapers (that’s 8640 diapers) for Smart Start
