Thanks to EVERYONE who made the BeLighted Bike Ride and Holiday Village a success!

Grace Epperly, Development Coordinator for Wesley House Family Services joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about the organization.

The BeLighted Bike Ride and Holiday Village was a huge success.

Epperly said, “It was so much fun. We had probably over almost 2,000 people inside the holiday village this year, and the police are saying over 1,000 bikes for the BeLighted bike ride. But it was just wonderful. It was so magical and so much fun to see all the excitement on the kids’ faces. That’s why we do it. That’s what makes it worthwhile, right there.”

It’s so important for these events to support Wesley House.

Epperly said, “Wesley House is charged with the child welfare for Monroe County. Our mission is just child safety and the well being and the development of children. We promote, enhance the child safety and the development and the well being of children by educating, supporting and meeting the needs of families. So what that means is we work with when a child comes into care, which is what we call foster care, that all starts through the Department of Children and Families, and when they are in a situation where they’re unsafe, there’s allegations of abuse or neglect, DCF deems that they need to be removed from their home to keep them safe, and then they turn to Wesley House. We place them with a licensed foster family or sometimes a relative. Most often it is a relative that we locate for the children to be within in care, and then we work with the entire family. The goal is reunification with the family members and the parents and the children. When that is not possible, we have adoption services for children in foster care, then we have a strengthening families prevention program that’s a short term intervention program for families who are at risk of having their children removed to foster care. So we work with them, connect them with various community resources to help them become autonomous and work on whatever the issue was that brought them to the attention of DCF. Then we have our Healthy Families Program, which is our free voluntary program, that is a wonderful program open to anyone who is pregnant or their children are three months or less, they’re eligible to join. You have a personal family support specialist who basically becomes your support system and works with you and your entire family until that focus child is age five. It’s just a wonderful education based program helping you learn skills to become a better parent. Then in Key West, we have our Inez Martin preschool, which serves ages two to five. It’s a wonderful school. It’s a gold seal school, and I encourage anyone who may have a child in that age range and needs some preschool options for your kids to consider Inez Martin.”

Share the Love event will take place in Key Largo.

Epperly said, “We opened our brand new office in Key Largo. The staff moved in at the beginning of December, so we are definitely trying to expand our reach in the Upper Keys, because Wesley House does serve the entire Florida Keys. We are transitioning. So this is kind of a big announcement for those that may not know. So after 42 years, the Key West Valentine’s Gala will no longer be in Key West, and we are moving that annual Valentine’s Gala up to Key Largo. So this year we are doing a Share the Love Key Largo black tie affair on Saturday, February 8. It’s going to be at the beautiful Playa Largo Resort and Spa, which is wonderful. Our tickets are on sale now, and those are $300. They include a wonderful, delicious three course meal, open bar. So kind of like the open bar right there is worth the ticket price. We’ll have some wonderful silent auction items and live auction items, and we’re going to have a great DJ. He plays a saxophone. He’s coming from Miami. He’s a lot of fun, and it’s just going to be a great night. So if you’re in the Upper Keys and would like to support Wesley House and kind of start your Valentines celebrations. It’s a great way to do that, and those tickets can be purchased online.”

The Valentine’s auction is another well-known event.

Epperly said, “Post COVID, we transitioned to an online auction, which we found to be very successful, because we’ve been able to garner bidders that bid from all over the country. This year, we are making it a Keys wide online auction, and it’s going to run from February 4 through the 14th. So we are in the home stretch to gather items for the auction. So if you have a business, we would gladly love gift certificates for restaurants, spa, hotel stays, experiences, anything that you can think of. If you’re a small business and don’t have a gift certificate, we can create a gift certificate for you, so that’s not a problem. If you’re not a business and you just have some items around your house, we gladly accept artwork. Our auction is famous for the artwork that it has and it’s really nice. Or if you have some really good quality home decor items, we can also take those as well. On the website, we have a link on there, and then you can click and complete the form and then we can pick up the item for you. We can arrange for pickup so we are in the home stretch for collecting items. Our goal is to try to get everything received to Wesley House next week as well.”

There will also be a Galentine’s luncheon.

Epperly said, “We are trying a new event in Key West. It’s going to be Monday, February 10, at the Key West Yacht Club. It’s a Galentine’s luncheon. It’s going to be a lot of fun and we are doing something new. So in lieu of the traditional sponsorships, we’re trying to choose your price ticket option. So we have tickets that start at $100, $250, $500 and $1,000. Basically you choose your price, and then the difference, basically, $50 is kind of the cost, and then the difference of those ticket prices is a direct tax donation to the programs of Wesley House. So for example, like the $100 price, $50 goes to our Healthy Families program. Then the other ones, some goes to the Inez Martin food program and Inez Martin scholarship, our Conch Republic Foster Care Fund. So it’s a great way to really just make a direct donation supporting Wesley House, have a great time. The lunch will include the lunch, dessert buffet. We’re going to have a signature pink cocktail. The theme is pink. So if you want to attend, please wear pink, and we are excited to have a pop up shop by a very talented jeweler. She makes beautiful gemstone jewelry. She’s going to be there selling her beautiful jewelry, and a portion of the proceeds will also benefit Wesley House. Then we have some fun activities as well. It’s just going to be a fun little afternoon celebrating getting together with your best gals, and also celebrating Valentines and then supporting Wesley House. That’s going to be Monday, February 10, at the Key West Yacht Club from 11:30 to 2. Tickets are limited. We’re almost sold out, so I would encourage people to purchase their tickets today.”

Foster parents are also needed.

Epperly said, “If you are interested in learning more about becoming a foster parent, please go to our website, click on the foster parent link, and then you can get that information there for who to talk to you and so forth.”

For more information, click here:  https://www.wesleyhouse.org/