What Happens When Support Gets Hold of a Label Maker

Dorie Wallace

For our third Support Day of Caring, we were fortunate to spend a day with Carolina Youth Development Center (CYDC) on Friday, July 24, 2015 .  Founded in 1790 as the Charleston Orphan House, CYDC is committed to empowering and equipping the Charleston community’s vulnerable children by providing a safe environment, educational support, and career readiness.  Here is a picture of us in front of the bell that hung at the original Charleston Orphan House.




 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


Eleven team members from Support spent the day cleaning out closets, organizing donations, making lunch for the Freedom School students, and painting the resident home.   We got to start the day with the Freedom School children and joined in on “Harambee!” where they sing and dance to celebrate life, learning, reading, and each other.   Check out Krystal Flowers and Jessica Easterling getting in the spirit in the picture below! Everyone on the Support team afterwards said we should do the same thing at our Support meetings!!




 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


I think Jessica and Charlene Chance painted each other as much as they did the doors.  Every child deserves the dignity of a clean and safe room so we were excited to put on a fresh coat of paint to the doors in the residence.  Kim Knight, Rebecca Ellerton, Amanda DeLoy, and I completely geeked out on cleaning out and organizing the closets.  Give us a label maker and we are happy ladies!  We really hope this makes it easier for the team at CYDC to get what they need to help the children.




 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


CYDC has an incredible Life Center where the children can just be kids!  Foosball, pool, TVs, video games, art, music, and a library.  We spent time in the library organizing hundreds of books and moving them from the donation boxes onto shelves.  And yes, the label maker came out again….teen, early reader, magazines.  Ok, so maybe we went overboard.




 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


Bottom line…it was an incredible day.  Meeting some incredible kids and nonprofit pros, making a difference in our community, and some great teamwork.  Not a bad way to end the week!