N IT Y Community Partner Highlight: Renaissance West

By: Laura Blake

Pop quiz: what do frozen turkeys, DVDs and 40 cans of whipped cream have in common? They are all things that the Junior League of Charlotte, Inc. (JLC) has provided to the Renaissance West Community Initiative (RWCI) during this League year! More on those later, but first, let’s learn a bit about RWCI and the JLC’s work with this innovative community partner.

Gina Spinelli, chair of the JLC committee for RWCI, describes the RWCI as a school and housing community that’s focused on an initiative to overcome intergenerational poverty.

“We partner with them to provide funding for additional activities, the kids’ learning opportunities and more,” she explained.

Within the grounds of RWCI, children live, attend school and participate in activities that support their education and well-being.

The JLC committee holds monthly cooking demonstrations with RWCI. These demonstrations stem from Kids in the Kitchen, an initiative used by many Junior League chapters to encourage healthy cooking and nutrition.

“It’s really rewarding seeing kids learn healthy habits and new techniques through fun recipes and time in the kitchen with friends and family,” said committee member Amanda Herring.

Gina said that the demonstrations are getting really great turnout. “The kids love it and have a lot of fun,” she said.

The committee also tries to do an activity with the children around every holiday. For example, they carved pumpkins for Halloween and provided frozen turkeys to families at Thanksgiving. For Easter, the committee hosted an Easter egg coloring event — what makes that one even more special is that it was one of the first inperson events the committee has done with RWCI since the pandemic began.

Apart from the set plans to help RWCI, the JLC also seeks to provide support as needed. A prime example of that from this year is when the League donated a new library box to the school filled with books and DVDs for the kids to enjoy. Those 40 cans of whipped cream referenced earlier were used for a fun event that incentivized students to perform well in their studies. If they met certain academic requirements, they got to pie the principal in the face. Talk about motivation!

The JLC has contributed to the overarching goal of RWCI to end intergenerational poverty while supporting the JLC’s own initiative around school readiness. The donations and experiences provided by JLC members have helped to provide kids with opportunities that they may otherwise not have.