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I love working with young people and The Young Brilliant Minds program has exceeded my expectations. We have meetings every second Saturday of the month at Buccaneer Park.
They wanted to bring back the Young Voices Poetry Competition, so we did it at Starbucks and the community turned out.
Community Engagement
The Bajas Reunion is now a two-part series in June. To celebrate Black Music Month, we had some artists perform at the Young Voices Poetry Competition, which was the opening night component. This event was about celebrating our young people, because they wanted their voices to be heard. One 11th-grader by the name of Amadeus Hagan blew everybody away with his beautiful voice and we had a fabulous host, May Reign. The second Bajas Reunion component is the big barbecue at Buckingham Park, with activities including live music, games, food vendors, and this year, a splash pad for the kids and a museum-type room set up with albums and turntables. We stepped it up a notch by bringing artists out as well.
I was totally impressed with what I saw at Formula One. I didn’t know what to expect because it was our first, but I was pleased and I’m excited about moving forward. They had women race drivers. I was blown away! I even got to the point that when I wasn’t on site, I went back home to put it on the TV. This event allowed the City of Miami Gardens to be recognized all over the world.
Many of our seniors are still having a grand old time with another initiative of mine, Bingo with a Twist. Now that summer is here, we’ll resume our Seniors Gone Fishing trips.
We have the Young Brilliant Minds Summit coming up on September 17th. Last year, I had a series of women come out and speak to our young people, but this time, based on conversations with them, I’m going to have young men come to speak. We’re still pushing for entrepreneurship, and we have a great guest speaker, Dr. Steve Gallon III, who is a big champion for this. A very well known young Black artist will be performing and speaking to our young people as well.
Hurricane season is upon us and we want to make sure residents have what they need — supplies, canned goods, water, flashlights and all the basics. Be prepared.
I have my town hall on the third Tuesday of the month. Keep in touch with me on all my social media platforms and sign up for the e-blast to keep up with what we’re doing as a City.
Miami Gardens is Where you Want to Be
Miami Gardens is where you want to be because we’re a melting pot. We have many cultures here, we have employment opportunities here and new businesses are on the rise. It’s a beautiful place to be.
On a personal level, I’m here because I have roots here. I was here when our founding members got the City incorporated so I’m always going to be actively engaged. It’s also important to me that we’re a predominantly African-American City. The purpose is bigger than us as individuals. We’re steady moving.
