Grace Epperly, Development Coordinator, with Wesley House Family Services, joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about the organization.
What does Wesley House do?
Epperly said, “Wesley House is the Child Welfare non profit in the Florida Keys, and we are charged with foster care for Monroe County. We when a child comes into care has to be removed from their home in order to keep them safe, that’s when the Department of Children and Families turns to Wesley House, and then we place them with a licensed foster parent or family. We also license foster parents, so that way, we are able to have a personal connection with those families. Our goal is to place the children with the best fit for them and try to keep them as close to their current community as possible, their same school system, their same friends and so forth. Then we have a Strengthening Families program that’s a short term intervention program for families who are at risk of having their children removed into foster care. So we work with them with whatever issues brought them to the attention of DCF, and connect them with community resources to kind of get them over that hump and help them to be autonomous again. Then we have our Healthy Families Program, which is a free, voluntary program. It’s open to anyone who is pregnant or their children are three months or less in age. It’s a wonderful, wonderful program where we have family support specialists that work with the family up until the enrolled child, which we call the focus child, is age five, and it’s all about education, parenting, education, child development, just making sure the kids are meeting those milestones. Additionally, we focus on what we call the focus child again, but we do assist any other family member in the household as well. So if they need help, we connect them with other community resources and so forth. Then in Key West, we have our Inez Martin Child Development Center, which is our preschool serving ages two to five. We provide adoptions for children in foster care. We have independent living skills for foster teens and so forth, parenting skills classes.”
The Big Splash coming up on September 6 in Key Largo.
Epperly said, “We’re very excited. This is the first time we’re doing this event. It’s our goal to do a family friendly event in the Upper Keys, and then one down here at Key West. So we’re calling it the Big Splash. It’s a mega waterslide event. We’re going to have five water slides, a foam pit, a toddler zone, bounce activities for younger kids, complimentary hot dogs and hamburgers provided by Centennial Bank. And then the admission fee is $20 for children ages four to 16. Kids three and under are free. And then a four pack of tickets is $70 included with that admission fee is again the complimentary hot dogs and hamburgers. You also get a voucher for an afternoon the same day, afternoon at the Jacobs Aquatic Center Pool, which is just a block away from our office. Then we’re going to have a free ice cream voucher from one of the ice cream food trucks in the Upper Keys, and you get unlimited slides. So unlimited slides from 10 to 2. So come on, bring the kids and have fun. And if you don’t have any kids this age, that’s okay, because you can purchase a pass it on ticket on our website, and we will make sure that that ticket gets to a child in need. So again, $20 for unlimited ride slides, and those tickets can be purchased on our website.”
The fifth annual Holiday Village and BeLighted Bike Ride is coming up on December 5 at the Coffee Butler Amphitheater.
Epperly said, “This is my personal favorite event of all of our events that we do, it is, again, all about the kids, and the payoff for myself and my staff is just seeing how happy the kids are and the joy and the smiles on their face throughout the night. So it is a community event, community endeavor. We welcome our nonprofit partners to join us and put up and have a booth that provides an interactive activity for the kids. We’re still accepting applications and registrations for that. We are also seeking sponsors to make this event bigger and better than ever. We will have 10 amusement park rides, and we’re excited to announce that Hank’s Hair of the Dog Saloon on Caroline Street will be the official after party this year for the bike ride. So that’s going to be a blast. We’ll have photos with Santa, community performances. I think there’s going to be a snowstorm there. It’s going to be so much fun. So please put it on your calendars Friday, December 5. It is the kickoff event for the holiday season, something for the kids. All about the kids. It takes place from five to nine at the Coffee Butler Amphitheater. The bike ride, the lighted bike ride leaves from the amphitheater at eight o’clock. Start planning your costumes and your bikes. We actually had a meeting yesterday, a design meeting of how, what we’re going to design the stage, and we were looking at past year photos. So this is the fifth year now. So just in five years, it was incredible how much we’ve grown, just in the stage decorations alone. So it’s a great event. It does require a lot of volunteers, so I’m thankful for my volunteer groups that help us out, Keys Energy, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department, Sunrise Rotary in Key West. So we’re grateful for all those. But if anybody’s interested in volunteering, please let us know. And all of this information is on our website.”
Share the Love Keys wide auction is coming up in February.
Epperly said, “Our historic Valentine’s auction has really grown throughout the years. A few years ago, we took it online. Last year was the first year that we did a Keys wide online auction, and it was really quite successful. Over 350 businesses donated. We had over hundreds of people bidding on items, and within 10 days, we were able to raise $47,000 for the programs of Wesley House. So this is a great way for businesses to support us in a small way. It doesn’t take a lot. A small gift certificate really adds up. So we are just asking the businesses now. We’re asking them early because we know come November, every other agency is going to be knocking on your door asking for a donation. So we’re just trying to get a head start. We’ve already received several items as well, some really nice things. So again, if anyone is interested, that information is on our website.”
The Inez Martin Development Center is also having a fundraising effort right now that involves matching funds so you can double your contribution.
Epperly said, “We were blessed to receive a $10,000 matching donation from the Marion Stevens Fund at the Florida Keys Community Foundation. So our goal is to raise that additional 10,000 and then 10,000 plus 10,000 equals 20,000 and that goes to the food program at Inez Martin. Inez Martin is one of the only two preschools in Key West that provides breakfast, lunch and an afternoon snack at no cost to the families. So it’s a great resource for our working families. It really helps them out with their monthly food budget and cost, because we all know groceries down here are crazy expensive. So just again, a small way, you can donate to really further your impact, all donations are doubled now through September 30, this is being run through the Community Foundation. So those donations must be made at cffk.org/inezmartin and then they’ll be credited towards that match.”
There was some recent good news about Inez Martin.
Epperly said, “Last year’s VPK class that are now kindergarteners this year had scored an excellent rating. There are only eight or nine schools in all of Monroe County that scored that excellent rating, and Inez Martin is the only preschool in the Lower Keys that scored that excellent rating.”
For more information, click here: https://www.wesleyhouse.org/