'We have to be the example': Gladys Knight to raise $5m to build community center for kids in town where her husband grew up

Published: 19:58 GMT, 4 March 2017 | Updated: 20:53 GMT, 4 March 2017

e-mail

View
comments

She has said that marrying a North Carolina native has turned her into a 'country girl at heart.'

And this week, Gladys Knight kicked off a fundraiser that will give back to Canton, a formerly segregated neighborhood where her husband had grown up.

The 72-year-old Empress of Soul will raise money to build the Reynolds Community Center for children, according to Citizen-Times.

Passionate: Gladys Knight kicked off a fundraiser that will give back to Canton, a formerly segregated neighborhood where her husband had grown up, on Tuesday

The singer and her fourth husband William McDowell - who still has fond memories of growing up in the South during the 1960s - purchased the abandoned Reynolds High School in Canton in an auction in 2014 for $80k.

The philanthropic couple had hopes of transforming the property into a community center for all residents and visitors to use.

Speaking to her community in front of the ravaged remains of the school - which was once the only African-American high school in Western North Carolina west of Asheville - on Tuesday, Knight said: 'I know this is where we are supposed to be.'

She spoke passionately: 'I looked around at what we've been blessed with and what were trying to do and it just made me happy.

Giving back: The singer purchased the abandoned Reynolds High School in the hopes of transforming the property into a community center for all. She is pictured in April 2016

'We're losing our children all over the world, not just here, and they are the future, they are the coming of tomorrow and if we don't give them what our parents and our grandparents gave us, they are a lost generation. We have to be the example, we have to give life service, embrace these kids,' the Midnight Train to Georgia crooner urged.

She was joined by McDowell, who wore a Reynolds High School letterman's jacket and told the crowd that 'everyone was kin.'

'We are on sacred ground,' said McDowell, speaking of the location he stood in, 'This particular building, this particular area was the backbone of this community long before I came long.'

Husband-wife team: Gladys and other organizers need to raise up to $5 million to renovate the 20,000-square-foot building, which was constructed in 1930 and functional until 1966

He continued ardently: 'That's what I want back. We should have no negative feelings about this place because this is us.'

Gladys and other organizers need to raise up to $5 million to renovate the 20,000-square-foot building, which was constructed in 1930 and functional until 1966.

The soul singer and her spouse hope to provide multiple services for the youth of the town, including a music center, a kitchen, computer lab, exercise rooms and counseling for drug and alcohol addiction.