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.
Wesley House Family Services is the Child Welfare Services Agency in Monroe County.
Epperly said, “We provide foster care services, foster parent licensing, and we have our Inez Martin Child Development Center preschool in Key West that serves ages two to five. We have a free, voluntary program for women who are pregnant or their children are three months or less that’s called Healthy Families, and we work with the family until the child is age five. It’s a wonderful program. Then we do adoptions for children in foster care who cannot be reunified with their families. We have an independent living skills program for children in foster care, ages 13 to 18, to help them gain independent skills to become wonderful people, A lot of other services, prevention services for families that are at risk, and we work with them on a short term basis to help them get the resources they may need and just to become autonomous.”
Foster parents are always needed.
Epperly said, “We definitely have a great need for foster parents in Monroe County. Currently, we only have seven licensed foster homes with the capacity for 20 beds, so that’s pretty low. If anyone is interested in becoming a foster parent, I encourage you to go to our website, and just look at the information we have there. It’s a wonderful opportunity to be a positive influence in a child’s life.”
There is currently a matching program going on for the Inez Martin Child Development Center.
Epperly said, “We’re very blessed to receive a $10,000 matching grant from the Marion Stevens fund at the Community Foundation, and we’re very close to reaching that goal. We’re going to finish this campaign on September 30, and the funds will be provide for the food program at Inez Martin, and we are one of the few preschools in Key West that provides breakfast, a hot lunch and an afternoon snack at no cost to the families. Then we also have a weekend food backpack program where we send home healthy snacks for the kids in care if they need it, and their siblings. All of this funding will go to cover the food costs at Inez Martin. To put it into perspective, $600 is lunch for 100 kids for one day. So we really hope the community will help us. A small donation goes a long way. It all adds up.”
Adopt a Family is also a program at Wesley House.
Epperly said, “Adopt a Family is our gift giving campaign of Wesley House, and what we are requesting is for members of the community, individuals, organizations, businesses, to sponsor a family for Christmas. You can select the size family that you want to sponsor, and we will then provide you with the gift information by November 7. Then we ask that you shop and wrap the gifts and then bring them back to the Wesley House offices on December 10 and 11th, and we’ll provide you with all of the information that you need. To sign up, you can go to our website and just fill out the form there, That’ll give us the information we need from you. It’s a wonderful program to be connected to families at the holidays and make sure that they have a joyous Christmas and the children have something to unwrap on Christmas morning. It’s really grown over the years. Last year we had about 120 families, that equated to 326 people. This year we’ve actually doubled that number. So we have 301 families that we need to find sponsors for. So you are definitely welcome to sponsor more than one family. If you just let us know the number of people you want to sponsor, then we will definitely get a family for you. So it’s a great way to be connected. You’ll get a little personal story about the family, and what their needs are, and it’s just a really touching way, we have people that have now done it year after year, and it’s really great. They get a lot of lot of joy out of it.”
The BeLighted Bike Ride will be on Friday, December 5, at the Coffee Butler Amphitheater.
Epperly said, “It has grown. We are so excited. It’s going to be a wonderful, family friendly event to kick off the holidays. The event time is going to be five to 9pm and then the famous BeLighted Bike Ride will leave the amphitheater at 8pm and this year we’ll cruise Whitehead and Duvall and then end at our official after party, which is Hank’s Hair of the Dog Saloon on Caroline Street. So we’re very excited for that sponsorship. And then, speaking of sponsorships, we are still soliciting sponsors, and we would greatly appreciate the community support for this event as well. It is so much fun for the kids, and we know that there’s not that many activities for the kids that are purely family friendly events. We’ll have nine amusement rides at the holiday village. We have over 20 community booths that come out and participate, provide a free activity for the kids, pony rides, face painting, photos with Santa, holiday music, community performances. I think it’s even going to snow this year, so it’s just so much fun. Everybody can also, again, find that information on our website, go to our events page, and you can click on that, and that’ll give you all the sponsorship information. We are asking if you want to be included in advertising, which is the posters and the banners that will be around town, that deadline is October 10. I just like to remind people, it doesn’t take a lot. Don’t ever feel like a small donation doesn’t make a difference, because it does. It adds up to a lot, and I’ve seen it year after year after year. So never feel that you’re you’re not making an impact or a difference because you absolutely are.”
The Share the Love Keys-wide online auction is also coming up.
Epperly said, “That will run on Keys wide online from February 4 through the 14th. It attracts bidders from all over the country. So we definitely are welcoming donations from our local businesses, gift certificates, spa stays, hotel stays, artwork, if anybody is an individual and you’re downsizing or you have some artwork at your home that you want to get rid of, in some excellent condition home decor items, we will gladly take those. This auction is very historic, and it’s well known for the art, so we will gladly take those type of items as well. It’s, again, a small way to support our mission, and it adds up to a lot. Last year, over the 10 days, we ended up raising about $47,000, so it’s an amazing opportunity to help our mission. We are approaching the public early on this, because we know it’s going to start getting really busy, and in the next few months, all the organizations are going to start asking. So we’ve been working on this, actually since July, just to get a head start. Any help goes a long way.”
The Valentine’s Gala will be held on February 14.
Epperly said, “That’ll be a really nice event as well. That’ll be at our Key Largo office event grounds, as we’re calling them now.”
For more information, click here: https://www.wesleyhouse.org/