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’Tis the season to be merry, generous, and grateful for your blessings.
With Thanksgiving Day passed, preparations are underway for Christmas, Hanukkah, New Year’s Eve and the list goes on. Traffic has increased with all our visitors coming to enjoy our weather. Counting your blessings is a great way to deal with it all and enjoy this time of year. With children out of school, you will want to look for fun activities.
The 76th annual Junior Orange Bowl Parade took place on Dec. 15 and Junior Orange Bowl president Michael Green was a recent guest on Gloria’s Gab LIVE, sharing that while the parade is one of the signature events, it is only one of numerous Junior Orange Bowl events taking place in South Florida this time of year. While cross country just concluded with a thousand runners, there’s basketball, tennis and golf with dates for the disability games and creative writing and more to be announced soon. These are great events to attend with your children during the holidays and are either free or very affordable for all.
Tennis and golf tournaments offer everyone a chance to see future professionals like many who have participated in the past including the likes of Tiger Woods and Sergio Garcia.
By the way, Jr. OB Basketball is getting great talent again this year at the upcoming tournament chaired by Jr. OB past president Chuck Little. On Dec. 27, 28 and 30, Chuck has scheduled eight games a day on Friday and Saturday at Westminster Christian School starting at 10 a.m. The championship games will be on Sunday: Girls’ Championship at 7:30 p.m. and the Boys’ Championship at 9 p.m.
These Jr. OB events are great events to attend with your children during the holidays and are either free or very affordable for all. For more information on the Jr. Orange Bowl events as well as sponsor and volunteer opportunities, visit jrorangebowl.org.
In other news, a reunion of individuals helped during their teen years by the late Mirta S. Fuentes was held recently at the home of Norma Jean Abraham. Norma Jean managed to coordinate schedules and gather mentees from the Allapattah and Leadership Learning Center in 2009, for dinner Sunday, Nov. 24. Norma shared with this writer her admiration for Fuentes, a Cuban immigrant who came to live in Miami after residing in Mexico, Spain, and Washington, DC, for years before coming here where she made an enormous impact.
Mirta Fuentes first became involved with Guardian Ad Litem program, and served as director of Child Affairs for 17 years. She continued her education at Barry receiving a BA in Liberal Studies. She later was recognized as a Distinguished Alumni by Barry for her professional achievements, contributions to society and support for the university. Over the years Fuentes helped build Amigos for Kids and most recently began working with the Honey Shine Mentoring Program. The dinner reunion was an inspired tribute to Mirta Fuentes and brought back lots of fond memories for all.
The Women Voice Network board of directors met at VIVO at Dolphin Mall after the announcement of its launch of WVN’s Academy. Founder and board chair Iris Garcia encourages everyone to visit and explore a variety of courses now available in both English and Spanish, designed to empower its participants with essential skills for personal and professional growth. For every client buys a course, that same course will be donated to a survivor.
Participants will have their own personalized dashboard to keep track of their classes and achievements has expanded its curriculum to include even more courses, always offering them in Spanish and English to ensure accessibility for everyone in our community. Note that this is in conjunction with WVN’s live classes, providing participants with both online and real-time learning opportunities.
This academy supports and is part of the nonprofits’ mission of economically empowering women to live a life full of promise living without fear. Among those joining Iris for the board meeting were Arrisson Pierre, Nathalie Kanzki, Gloria Burns, Tracy Forgette, Henry Zaldivar, Ernesto Alvarez and Ruben Fuentes.
By the way, VIVO was a great place to meet, especially for football fans who were attending the WVN meeting and wanted to keep tabs on the games in a quiet enough space to conduct a meeting. Many thanks to Steven Bradley, its new director of sales, for setting that up for the nonprofit. Bradley also continues his community service as an entertainer and emcee for Coral Gables Woman’s Club’s Gringo Bingo with celebrity DJ Germain, the new director of music for iHeart Radio.
This duo has worked with this writer and the Coral Gables Woman’s Club since 2019. With the support of Miami’s Community Newspapers, sponsors, and individual donors, the monthly Gringo Bingo events have raised funds for the club’ s charitable giving projects and initiatives including, most recently, the Arthritis Foundation’s Annual Jingle Bells Run on Dec. 14.
Hundreds gathered at Tropical Park for the event including members of the Coral Gables Woman’s Club supporting the run in memory Mireya Kilmon, who was a past president of the club and suffered with the disease from an early age. For information on the Arthritis Foundation, contact Jordan Reardon at j reardon@arthritis.org, or call 561-486-1340.
It is always great to see new stores making a presence in South Florida and Hippolito’s U.S. flagship store just opened in Coral Gables. Opening night on Nov.12 gave guests an opportunity to see new styles and fabrics in time for the holiday gift giving. Hippolito shared that their new fabric collection was made by Ing. Loro Piana & Co. La Guayabera Hippolito, located at 2617 Ponce de Leon Blvd., promises to be the place for that upscale attire with an elegant Latin flair.
The calendar for 2025 already is filling up with great charitable fundraisers. Mark your calendars for Voices For Children’s 2025 Be a Voice Gala to be held at the luxurious Mandarin Oriental Miami on Jan. 18. This year’s event, themed “Fostering Hope,” will celebrate its 40th anniversary and celebrate the impact they have made on the lives of children and youth in foster care. Voices For Children CEO Kadie Black advises that tickets for this “over the top” affair are going fast. For information, visit www.beavoice.org.
Until next time, share your time and talents, count your blessings, and make a difference.
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