The Biscayne Bay Kiwanis Club, one of South Florida’s most active community service organizations, joined with one of South Florida’s top law firms, Shutts & Bowen, to provide a free “Spooky Tunes” Halloween Concert for nearly 300 inner-city youths and their families at the historic Lyric Theater in Overtown.
Featuring the South Florida Youth Symphony, the annual Halloween concert has grown to become an extremely popular event during its three-year history. Kids and their parents from five different inner-city elementary schools — Frederick Douglass, Phillis Wheatley, Eneida Hartner, Dunbar and Santa Clara — attended the concert as well as the pre-concert “Meet & Greet” in the Lyric lobby.
SFYS performers — attired in Halloween costumes — met the youngsters and taught them about their instruments, even allowing the young concert attendees to hold and play the instruments.
“Concerts such as this exposes these youngsters — some for the very first time — to classical music,” said Kellie Gayoso, president of the Biscayne Bay Kiwanis. “We hope to expand their horizons and show them possibilities. Perhaps, because of this exposure, a child decides to take up a musical instrument.”
The City of Miami Police Department joined this year’s Halloween concert by handing out “goodie bags” to kids following the event.
Since its founding in 1950, the Biscayne Bay Kiwanis Club — an all-volunteer service organization of professional men and women based in Downtown Miami — has improved the lives of disadvantaged children in Overtown, Allapattah, and Midtown Miami through educational programs, field trips, and hands on service projects.
The 68-year-old club’s very successful programs include an in-school reading program to help second graders pass the EOY (End of Year) Exam; funding of summer swim lessons; lessons in etiquette, civics, and life skills; Thanksgiving meal giveaways to inner city families, and guided tours/field trips to Everglades National Park and South Florida museums.
During the past six years the BBKC has awarded more than $200,000 in college scholarships throughout Miami-Dade County, including an annual full, four-year college scholarship to a deserving Booker T. Washington High School senior.
For more information about the Biscayne Bay Kiwanis or to join in one of its community service projects, text or phone the club at 305-814-2225.
