West End Community Center

In Legacy Center’s Leadership Program, each team creates an extreme makeover project in the community with budgets that usually exceed $30,000. The challenge: the project must be complete in two days, the team cannot use any of their own money, the community performs 75% of the work, and the planning phase is less than one month.
West End Video Legacy Center
West End Community Center

The NC62 Leadership Team from Legacy Center performed an extreme makeover of a Community Room as well as educated people on endangered species.

Volunteers from as far away as Florida joined more than 50 people for two days of reinvention at the West End Community Center. The volunteers worked alongside residents and teens, which are served by the center, which is located in Durham's West End and is a part of the Duke University -Durham Neighborhood Partnership.

Volunteers stripped away the interior of a former law office and replaced it with bright turquoise paint and striped window shades reminiscent of a tropical scene. The team renovated the center with new chairs, tables, bookcases, original artwork, lighting, and ovens for the kitchen. The team created an endangered species display and conducted a workshop on endangered species. About 75 people -- black, white, young and old -- attended the Sunday ribbon cutting, which was held on the weekend of the annual Martin Luther King Jr. celebration.

"It's one of the greatest feelings we've had in a long time. It almost produces tears," said Juanita McNeil, who used to bring neighborhood children into her home before there was a facility. "Thank you for all the work you put in. I didn't think it could be done." Budget: $30,000.