A West Kendall retiree who moved 345 miles away still keeps her membership active in Kendall Federation of Homeowner Associations.
“I’m sending my dues to the KFHA for their 40th year,” former West Kendall community activist Martha Backer messaged in April.
She had a long history of service with the community organization and its efforts to improve residents’ quality of life throughout the Kendall area.
“I was there when it was just beginning, working in the Winston Park Clubhouse, as they developed the concept,” she added from her new home in the Jacksonville Beach area.
“Hooray for Miles Moss,” she said.
One of Backer’s last projects while in Kendall was securing fresh paint for community walls to erase years of graffiti and multi-color paiontovers, one of many projects during Moss’ 20 years of service as KFHA president while leading the homeowners association in Winston Park where he has made his home since the early 1970s.
It was early in the lasy decade when Backer, Moss and Jane Walker successfully fought a planned project to eight-lane SW 104th Street through The Hammocks neighborhood — a project that saved the county an estimated $6.5 million.
With Backer and others like her, KFHA has continued to represent Kendall residents in the absence of any county-supported platform, other than those that may suddenly arise over a single issue. Community councils that once heard local issues are now confined to address only zoning matters.
KFHA today represents homeowners and their organizations south of SW Eighth Street to SW 152nd Street from S. Dixie Highway (US1) to Krome (177th) Avenue.
“Kendall’s only blanket organization representing thousands of homeowners and now mounting a membership drive to secure its future projects and services,” declared current president Michael Rosenberg.
Without community council meetings or a government center for the Kendall area, KFHA today not only provides the sole public forum on public issues but continues a year-around schedule of special events for the community.
“KFHA is not supported by tax dollars and all the board members are volunteers,” Rosenberg said in an April KFHA bulletin.
“The money we raise throughout the year will support events like our annual holiday party for migrant children, Operation Turnaround Scholarship Initiative for students who have turned themselves around from hardships to become college-bound, held Apr. 21, as well as our police and firefighter awards for our Kendall heroes.”
In addition, KFHA continues its “Guest Speaker Series” that brings local politicians, school board members, Congress members, utility companies and other institutional spokespersons to Town Hall sessions at its “home” in the civic pavilion at Kendall Village Shopping Center, 8625 SW 124 Ave.
“The annual contribution for a KFHA individual membership at $25 goes 100 percent to our programs that enrich our community by making everyone aware of current events that affect our daily lives,” Rosenberg said.
Association and Corporate/Business memberships also are available that identify the organization directly with KFHA on co-sponsored programs and its website.
”One of the greatest benefits of being a KFHA board member is bringing forth the issues or causes that concern you,” Rosenberg added.
“Our board members support the Pets’ Trust, fight the toll roads, challenged FPL, worked to stop the Miccosukee Golf Course from possibly becoming a casino, fight to get our traffic under control with strong resolutions to the county and, during election season, bring you candidates running for office so you can meet them face to face.”
For additional details and a membership application, visit www.kfha.org/membership.
