Doorperson of the Month: Renee Moore

Renee Moore dedicated her career to helping others when she decided to leave nursing school and launch her own caregiving business nearly two decades ago. “I made it all the way to clinicals (the hands-on phase of the nursing program), but I would come home crying because there wasn’t enough time for patients,” she recalled. “It was like being in an administrative job instead of a caring job.”

The move set her on a professional path that has included comforting people with progressive dementia, consulting families of the terminally ill, and even once caring for a man who decorated his home with Nazi memorabilia. “He was sweet as pie to me,” she recalled.

It eventually led to The Buckingham at 360 E Randolph St., where she became a member of the door staff in January.

Renee brings a unique personal philosophy to work every day. “You don’t know what people are going through in life — be a bright spot.” She developed this optimistic resilience while growing up as the youngest of 13 children in East Garfield Park.

Renee’s father was the sole parent in the family after her mother passed when she was six-years-old. A truck driver who cofounded and operated his own produce company, he told her, “you’re the last part of your mom, so I have to take special care of you." He not only kept the promise, but also taught her some valuable lessons along the way.

“I remember one Christmas, he had to cover three shifts for three weeks because people had called in sick,” Renee recalled. “But he still made it home to make breakfast and lunch and dinner for us.”

When Renee started her own caregiving business, her father became her first customer.

She eventually contracted dozens of clients, including the wife of a resident at 360 E. Randolph who encouraged her to apply for the doorperson position. “They told me that you have to be a people pleaser during the interview,” she recalled.

When she’s not working, Renee keeps busy with her husband and four children. Their oldest is currently scouting colleges like Cal Arts and Rhode Island School of Design. Their eighth-grade fraternal twin sons are “like night and day:” one “wants to participate in everything;” the other is “so smart it’s scary.” Their youngest son is a ham who “keeps us on our toes.”

On November 8, Renee will be running the Allstate Hot Chocolate Virtual 15k/5k with one of the twins. It will be her third year completing the event. The previous outings have happened on days when it was so cold that they were “freezing their butts off.” But she doesn’t mind because the event is an official charity for the St. Jude Children’s Hospital.

“I want my kids to understand that it’s important to give, not just to get a prize and get your name in the paper,” she said. “I love those kids more than life itself, and I’d go to the ends of the earth for them.”