YES AWARD
In 2019, the Canopy Housing Foundation instituted the YES Award to recognize and celebrate the area’s youth who are engaged in improving the quality of life in the region.
Young people who are engaged in service mature into adults who serve the community. This award was established to encourage youth to address a broad spectrum of needs in an effort to build a stronger community. This program has donated $3000 to the recipient’s designated non profit since inception.
If you know a young person aged 10-18 who is actively engaged in improving our community, please nominate them for the Youth Excellence in Service Award.
Meet the 2024 YES Award winner – Rosie Smolowitz
ZaNia Stinson (l), pictured with Canopy Realtor® Association President Tiffany Johannes (r).
Rosie Smolowitz
Rosie Smolowitz was nominated by the Ronald McDonald House of Charlotte for being a prolific student and volunteer, dedicating countless hours supporting causes that she is passionate about. She has a personal commitment to the field of healthcare due to a severe health crisis experienced by her father in 2011. She realized that many families do not have the resources to seek medical attention and absorb the additional expenses that serious illness brings. As a result, Rosie got involved with the Ronald McDonald House because “it provides a welcoming home that allows families to focus on what really matters, which is their children.”
As President of the Teen Volunteer Board for the Ronald McDonald House, Rosie revived their pre-COVID community event called Winterfest. The post-COVID event saw 200 participants, the biggest audience ever for this event. Rosie’s leadership also inspired new fund-raising campaigns that raised $3,000 the first year and over $8,000 the second year. She also served as a key volunteer for the 2024 Sport A Shirt committee, personally raising more than $15,000 for the Ronald McDonald House, in addition to many in-kind donations.
As part of her continued desire to give back, Rosie also founded Pints 4 Providers which combined her interest in healthcare and her part-time job as an ice cream scooper to launch this project which delivered ice cream to more than 1,000 healthcare workers to thank them for their hard work during the pandemic and beyond. Since its inception, Rosie has received over $10,000 worth of ice cream as an in-kind donation from Ben & Jerry’s.
osie has also served her community in many other ways:
- Tournament director for Myers Park High School Speech & Debate.
- Hospital volunteer with Atrium Health and Novant Health.
- The founder and president of the Sababa Jewish Culture Club.
- Student-to-Student Teen Ambassador to middle schools, a program sponsored by the Jewish Federation.
At the age of eighteen, Rosie has demonstrated that she is a leader and cares deeply about the community. Rosie will be attending Duke University, and plans to help the Foundation continue spreading the word about the YES Award and its impact. In her honor, the Canopy Housing Foundation will be donating $250 each to the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Greater Charlotte and the Stan Greenspon Holocaust and Social Justice Education Center.
Who/What:
Youth ages 10-18 are eligible.
When:
The recipient is recognized at the Grant Awards presentation.
Where:
The recipient receives the award at the Foundation’s annual Grant Awards presentation and/or at the recipient’s school assembly.
The Award:
The chosen recipient receives a commemorative plaque and $500 to be donated to the charity of their choice in their name.
It is our hope that all young people will realize their potential to impact the lives of others and, in return, find fulfillment in their own lives.
The 2023 YES Award recipient was ZaNia Stinson.
Almost eight years ago, at the age of nine, she encountered a woman and her two children begging for food in front of a local grocery store. She gave the woman five dollars and watched as the lady cried upon receiving the funds – the woman was so touched that a child would stop and help while many adults had passed her by.
After that encounter, ZaNia knew that she had to make a difference, and that was when she created her nonprofit, Z Feeds Angel Food Project. ZaNia was all too familiar with these issues because she remembered clearly the feeling of being hungry and in a homeless shelter. Her early life was spent in the battered women’s shelter with her biological grandmother. She then lived with a foster family before moving back to the shelter.
Today, her foster family has become her forever family by virtue of them adopting her. They now work as a family to advance ZaNia’s desire to give back. Through her nonprofit’s mission, she has solicited funds, gone shopping for food and toiletries, and organized various groups to contribute countless hours to further her work. She developed the concept of ‘Go-Go Bags’ — gallon bags filled with food, drinks, toiletries and lots of love that she has distributed to the homeless. More than 2,150 food bags and more than 600 toiletry bags have been distributed by more than 500 volunteers.
The 2022 YES Award recipient was Brandon Wilson. Brandon has been featured on WBTV by Molly Grantham and was featured in a special article in Atrium Health’s newsletter Momentum in June. To learn more about Brandon’s non-profit, go to: facebook/BeemerInc.com.
Brandon came up with the idea of creating a non-profit business and donating the money to charity. Thus, Beemer Inc came into existence.
As of May 5, Brandon had raised $1,567.60 from selling wristbands and coffee mugs; those funds have now been donated to the Child Life Department. He exceeded his initial goal of $500 in just five months and has since raised an additional $1,000.
The 2021 YES Award recipient was Anirudh Sengupta, a 6th grader at Community House Middle School. In addition to maintaining a straight A average in all classes, Anirudh and his sister created Xcelerate NC, an organization that aims to help young children in grades K-5 excel in public speaking and math.
He has also partnered with a non-profit organization in Tanzania, www.help2kids.org, that runs children’s home for underprivileged students.
The 2020 YES Award recipient was 16-year old Alexa Nicole Suarez, who founded the HILL Project, which stands for Hispanic Initiative for Literacy and Learning. The HILL Project’s main goal has been to increase the literacy rate and reduce the high school dropout rate in the Latino community.
The 2019 YES Award recipients were sisters Mykia (age 17) and Zarriah (age 15) White, who created the Turning Point Teen Club at their high school to promote and educate young people on teen dating abuse and the value of healthy relationships.
