Grace Epperly, the Development Coordinator for Wesley House Family Services, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about the organization.
What does Wesley House do?
Epperly said, “Wesley House does a lot of wonderful things that are what I like to say, kind of behind the scenes in the community. We provide foster care for children that need to be removed from their homes to keep them safe. We do that for all of Monroe County. We have adoption services for children in foster care who are not able to be reunified with their families. We offer parenting classes to help those families learn the skills that they need to be good parents in order to be reunified with their families. Then we also have an intervention program that’s called Strengthening Families. That’s for families that are at risk of having their children removed, and then we work with them on a short term basis, usually 90 days, help them get the skills that they need, the resources they need, hook them up with whatever resources in the community that can help them be autonomous and a functioning family. We have a Healthy Families Program, which is a free, voluntary program. It is open for anyone who is pregnant or their children are three months or less, they’re eligible to join. We have family support specialists who go into your home and just become basically like your support system, and they help you. They let you know that the kids are meeting their developmental milestones, they also assist you with getting connected with other resources in the community. What’s so great about the Healthy Families program is that we work with the families until the child is five years old. We call that the focus child, but once the child is five, they graduate from the program, but we also assist with other family members. So if there’s older children in the home, we make sure that they have what they need, especially school supplies, Christmas gifts and same with the family members. If there’s grandparents in the house, we’ll help them get connected with resources that they may need as well. So it’s just a truly wonderful program. Then in Key West, we have our Inez Martin preschool for ages two to five.”
The grand opening of the Key Largo office is coming up on November 14.
Epperly said, “We are super excited about that. That’s going to be Thursday, November 14. The entire community is welcome to attend. We’re having an open house from 4 to 5:30 and then the festivities will be from 5:30 to 7:30 with hors d’oeuvres and cocktails. Then the ribbon cutting through the Key Largo chamber will happen at 6:30. We’re extremely excited. It’s been a long time coming. Much needed in the Upper Keys. The majority of our staff does work in the Upper Keys because of the cost of living down here. So we have a lot of people that commute from Homestead or Florida City, and it’s kind of the space we were in was great, but we were just kind of bursting at the seams, and we’re ready to have a home of our own and we’re very excited.”
The BeLighted Bike Ride will be held on December 6.
Epperly said, “This is my personal, most favorite event of all the events that we do. I love it. It is all about the kids. It’s a wonderful way to kick off the holiday season. We transform the Coffee Butler Amphitheater into a beautiful holiday village, and we have probably about 20 plus community partners and food vendors that set up booths inside the holiday village. We’ll have free photos with Santa, and then we’ll have carnival style rides. We have about nine rides this year, and then we’re going to have snow. Can’t have a holiday village without snow. So that’s going to be fun. That takes place from 5 to 7. And then the bike ride tarts at eight o’clock. The holiday village is 5 to 9pm and then the bike ride leaves from the Coffee Butler amphitheater at eight o’clock, and our official after party is at the Speakeasy Inn and Rum Bar on Duvall Street. That’ll be a lot of fun for the after party, but our tickets will be going on sale probably early next week. They’re going to be $20 a person, or four tickets for $70 and that includes everything that I mentioned, unlimited rides, complimentary photo with Santa that you can download. We’ll also have Coca Cola there that will take photos with Santa and print them on site. So it’s just a great time, great time to kick off the festivities. We encourage costumes. We encourage Christmas theme attire. Absolutely, lights, lights, lights, light up your bike. Today is our last day to accept sponsors who want to be included in advertising. We have a variety of amounts. The amounts to be included in advertising are $1,000, $2,500 or $5,000. So if you’re interested in being a sponsor to be included in advertising, I encourage you to visit our website. We also have smaller amounts available for $250, and $500 and we would greatly appreciate the community support to help us offset our expenses. But not only do the sponsorships offset the expenses, they also allow us to provide free complimentary tickets to families who can’t afford that entry fee, and that’s really a big deal for us. We really want this to be a gift to the community, something that we can just invite everybody to come to.”
Wesley House will be at the Key Largo School for a trunk or treat this Friday.
Epperly said, “It’ll be awesome to be there as well. So if you’re in the Upper Keys and want to stop by, that would be great.”
Adopt a Family is a great giving campaign for the organization.
Epperly said, “Adopt a Family is a specific gift giving campaign for clients of Wesley house, and right now, we are accepting donors to sign up to sponsor a family this holiday season. You can get that information on our website. Donor sign up deadline is November 1, and then we’ll provide you with your family’s wish list by November 7. You then shop and wrap the gifts and you bring them back to our offices, December 11 and 12th. So it’s a wonderful way to really feel connected to the families. You’ll get a little personal story about their situation and all of our families definitely are in need this season, and you will be the shining light on their Christmas morning. It’s just such a heartwarming way to give back, especially if you have children and it’s a wonderful way to include your children in this experience and shop for a child. You can let us know, hey, I have an eight year old. Give me a child that’s around eight, and we can do that, and then you can include your kid to pick out the gifts, which is a really nice way to teach your children to give back as well. So we do need sponsors. We have 140 families this year that we’re trying to get sponsors for. So the more people, the better and you just let us know what size family you want to shop for and then we will assign you the family. We always need foster parents. That’s one of our greatest needs. So that information is online too.”
For more information, click here: https://www.wesleyhouse.org/