Grace Epperly, Development Coordinator for Wesley House, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about the organization.
Wesley House provides Child Welfare Services for Monroe County.
Epperly said, “We provide foster care for children who need to be removed from their homes to keep them safe. We license foster parents. We provide adoption services for children in foster care who cannot be reunited with their families, and we have a free, voluntary program called Healthy Families Monroe that is open to anyone who is pregnant or their children are three months or less. It’s a wonderful parent, child education based program, creating strong parent, child relationships, ensuring that the child is meeting their developmental milestones, the family support specialist will work with them, become their support system, go into the home, and then we work with that child until that child is age five. Then in Key West, we have our Inez Martin Child Development Center, which is our preschool for ages two to five. Then we serve the entire Florida Keys as well. We have an office in Key West and Key Largo.”
The Key Largo location opened recently.
Epperly said, “We’re very excited about that. We have a brand new building, so we have a permanent home in Key Largo. It’s located at 5 Homestead Avenue, just behind the First Horizon bank up there.”
The Holiday Village and BeLighted Bike Ride is coming up.
Epperly said, “This is our fourth year for the Holiday Village. The bike ride itself, the BeLighted Bike Ride portion, has been going on since 2009, so that’s really exciting. It’s really grown. We’ve added the holiday village, which is the family friendly pre party, to the BeLighted Bike Ride.
The event will be Friday, December 6, from 5 to 9 p.m. at the Coffee Butler Amphitheater.
Epperly said, “It’s going to be wonderful. So from 5 to 7, we are going to have Santa photos on the grand stage. So we encourage everyone to arrive early to get a great Santa photo. We’re going to sprinkle in some community performances, starting hopefully at 5:30 till about 7:30-ish. Then we have nine rides this year, which is going to be a lot of fun. We have pony rides. We have 20 community booths providing various free activities for the kids, whether it’s a craft or an activity or a game, and food vendors, DJ playing Christmas music throughout the night. I think it should even snow in Key West that night, and it’s a great value for only $20 a person, you get unlimited rides. You get everything that I mentioned. A few things are additional. The pony rides are additional. Food is additional. And then some merchandise that’ll be available for sale is additional. Then we will have a best elf costume contest this year. So we encourage everyone to come dressed up as elves, if you like, or just certainly dress festively. That will be take place for kids and adults, and that should be happening between 7:30 and 8, and I’ll put our schedule timeline, hopefully by Friday online. I’m just still finalizing those details. And tickets, if you have four or more in your party, four tickets are $70 so it’s $20 a person, four for $70. Children three and under are free.”
Where can tickets be purchased?
Epperly said, “Our website, you can just click on our holiday event section on the home page, and that’ll take you to all the information you need. We’re going to put up the bike route for the BeLighted Bike Ride, which is going to start at eight o’clock. We’ll put that up, hopefully today or tomorrow, and then you can purchase tickets directly on that link. We encourage everyone to purchase tickets early, just so you can get the QR code for express entry and then you can avoid the longer line and just show the QR code at the at the check in desk. It’s going to be a lot of fun. It’s a great way to kick off the holiday season, and it is a true family friendly event, all about the kids.”
Wesley House is expecting almost 4,000 bikes this year.
Epperly said, “I know we’ve been about 3,000 or 3,500 the last couple years. So it should be, hopefully towards that 4,000 mark. It’ll leave from the amphitheater, go up Southern, turn right on Whitehead to Truman, then left on Duvall, all the way up Duvall, back on Front and then back down Whitehead, all the way down Whitehead to the southernmost point, left on South, left on Duvall, and then it’s going to end at the Speakeasy Inn and Rum Bar. They are our official after party sponsors, so we’re definitely want to give them a shout out and let everybody know to have a great time at the end of the bike ride at the Speakeasy Rum Bar.”
Do you have to register your bike to participate?
Epperly said, “That would be wonderful, because it is a fundraiser. More people who purchase a ticket, whether you decide to go into the holiday village or not, but if you’re just doing the bike ride, we would still appreciate the $20 donation to Wesley House, which helps offset our expenses to produce this event, and it is a fundraiser, and helps us provide the services we provide to Monroe County.”
There’s also an option to pass it on.
Epperly said, “We added after you purchase your ticket, there’s an option for a pass it on ticket. So for some the $20 is not a lot of money, and if they wish to purchase some extra tickets, that will allow us to share those tickets with others in the community who may not be able to afford the entry fee. So we would love, if that is not a large amount for you, we would love for you to share the love and then just purchase a pass it on ticket or two, and that’ll help us share those tickets with others in the community.”
For more information, click here: https://www.wesleyhouse.org/