You can see from the smiles that October’s Wellness Challenge Picnic is a much anticipated event for many Moore Place tenants! From June to September, tenants collect badges by participating in one of the 7-8 wellness opportunities offered each week—art, yoga, cooking, walking, etc. Collect four badges for the month and they are invited to a Wellness Reception with a certificate of accomplishment and healthy snacks; collect 16 over the whole summer and you are ‘in’ for the Picnic.
What really makes each summer special is our partnership with Greater Charlotte Apartment Association (GCAA). Since 2014, they sponsor each of these events, arriving with wonderful fellowship and encouragement, swag (tshirts, exercise bands, portion control plates, measuring cups), and healthy snacks. Well, the 
Picnic departs a bit from the healthy with a cook-out and focuses more on the delicious with a smaller helping of healthy on the side, but the Moore Place tenants earned that. This year, fourteen tenants secured the 16 badges needed to attend, with the highest badge earner coming in with 68!
GCAA began their partnership with Moore Place several months after Moore Place opened in 2012. They began by donating and assembling Fresh Start Kits for new tenants. One visit to deliver the kits and they were hooked on their fellow members of GCAA, Moore Place. The Summer Wellness Challenge was a natural next step to get to spend more time with their new friends. But they didn’t stop there.
Since then they’ve also branched out to our center at 945 N College St, supporting our neighbors yet to be housed by gardening, painting, collecting items off the wishlist, supporting UMC events (especially the Annual Art Show and HousingFest), and a monthly drink group for the soup kitchen. They are great advocates in our community for housing, both talking the talk—GCAA was a sponsor for the recent Evicted talk given by Matthew Desmond—and walking the walk, spending their time and resources to help those who are experiencing, or have experienced homelessness in the past. In this way, GCAA provides wellness for our whole community.
