At the Jack N Jill School on Michael Road, children ages two to 12 from diverse backgrounds, cultures, abilities, races and languages play together on the playground.

To encourage acceptance of that diversity, the children at Jack N Jill recently received a donation of multi-cultural clothes, books, posters and toys collected by female employees at Dominion Virginia Power. Pictured in the photo are, front row, Harper Tyson, Beth Tyson (United Way of Greater Richmond & Petersburg) and back row, Pam Brown and Mary Cox (Jack N Jill School), René Shepperson (Union First Market Bank/WLI Volunteer), and Ruth Prideaux (Dominion/WLI volunteer).

This volunteer donation project for United Way’s Women’s Leadership Initiative (WLI) was the first in a new Lessons-In-A-Box supply drive that targets childcare programs that participate in the Virginia Star Quality Initiative (VSQI) rating system. Childcare centers that volunteer to participate in VSQI are rated on factors that include educational environment, and the highest-quality early childhood education programs provide experiences to encourage acceptance of diversity. This donation will help the 60-year-old child development center – which has children representing at least six nationalities, including China, India, Japan, Latin America, and Russia – enhance its score on VSQI’s environmental rating scale. For details about VSQI, call 591-3918 or e-mail .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).