The Woman’s Club of Homestead has begun a fundraising project. Members will be selling engraved bricks on the pathway to the gazebo in the garden of their clubhouse located at 17905 SW 292 St., according to Ruth Perry, clubhouse manager and Woman’s Club member.
Margie Buster, a member of the Woman’s Club of Homestead, requested the assistance of Homestead Job Corps Center (HJCC) to lay the brick pathway and place the engraved bricks as they are bought.
“We’ve worked with the Homestead Job Corps Center in the past and it’s always been a good experience,” said Buster, president of Redland
Tropical Gardens. “I thought it would be a great opportunity and experience for the students to leave a wonderful legacy for the Woman’s Club.”
For several days, HJCC masonry students and their instructor, Terry Devine, volunteered tirelessly to install the brick pathway. On Wednesday, May 20, the finishing touches were done by the Homestead Job Corps Center Masonry students.
“This is on-the-job training for our students… the best experience they can receive,” Devine said. “This particularly was a spectacular experience for the students due to the hospitality of the women from the Woman’s Club.”
Established in 1914, the Woman’s Club of Homestead celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2014. The members recently installed their new president, Alice “Texas” Steep. Club members Doylene Losner and Evelyn Guilfoyle also were involved in the planning and implementation of this collaborative project.
“It was such a delight,” Perry said. “They were a wonderful group of young men (and one young woman) who worked hard and followed the directions given by their great instructor. They were just terrific.”
Homestead Job Corps Center masonry student Steven Alonso said of the experience, “It was an education. I learned how it is to be in the workforce. It gave me something to look forward to in the future. It was also a blessing because of the people here [at the Woman’s Club] who treated us so kindly.”
This is the second such project the Homestead Job Corps Center has undertaken. In 2006, Devine and students laid the bricks for the Veteran’s Memorial at Losner Park in Homestead. To this date, Devine and current HJCC students return to the park to lay newly bought memorial bricks under the direction of longtime Homestead resident and military veteran Bob Jensen.
For more information about the Woman’s Club of Homestead and about purchasing a fundraising brick in honor or memory of yourself or a loved one, contact the Woman’s Club at 305-248- 8001.
