JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A Northwest Jacksonville charity was honored by a local magazine for its work in giving resources to families in underserved communities.
Jewels of the Future hosted a toy drive at its annual Christmas party a few weeks ago on Moncrief Road.
Kids were given toys, shoes, and school uniforms.
The co-founders of the charity are mother and daughter Renita Turner and Diamond Wallace. They said this is their passion.
“We just like to bring the resources to the community because people don’t know what is out there,” Turner said.
Jewels of the Future is gracing the cover of December’s edition of the Duval Connect Magazine. It labels itself as a community-based magazine that provides platforms to what it considers silent heroes, community events, and anything happening in Duval County.
“We have been a part of different programs,” Wallace said. “We are a part of the name changes at our schools that defeated the hundreds of years of racist history. We’ve gone from parties that have seen 30 kids to how hundreds of children at our events. There are no words to describe that type of happiness and the joy that we see from our kids.”
Wallace and Turner said they were inspired to launch Jewels of the Future by Turner’s mother, Angela Daniels, who died from breast cancer in 2006.
Daniels worked as a certified nursing assistant primarily in nursing homes. She eventually became a nursing home’s entertainment director and organized events for the residents there.
“Whenever she did an event, she brought children because the children always made the older people feel great,” Turner said. “At those parties, she made it fun for the children, for older people. She always did for others, that was her thing. She was the most selfless person that I knew.”
Since 2018, the organization has been trying to meet the needs they see in their community and find solutions to problems they say exist.
“We see kids that need clothes, we see kids who are hungry,” Turner said. “We see kids who cannot even get decent grooming. We have to have resources.”
We have to have resources for working families that are trying their hardest and just can’t make it. We like to be able to incorporate vendors at our events, and if [another] organization is not for your child, here is another one," Turner said.
In February, the organization will host a Black history community potluck to feed the homeless while educating kids. They also plan to have performances including poetry, singing and dancing.
“It is not just all about sitting down in the classroom and learning history, but being a part of history, but being a part of history,” Wallace said. “We want to teach our kids that their future is also a part of Black history.”
Turner and Wallace said they just want to keep doing the work on the Northside their beloved mother and grandmother did to create change.
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