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Collaborations and Partnerships
Every third Tuesday of the month, I do a virtual town hall meeting with guests who share invaluable information. For example, I’ve had outside vendors from neighboring communities and people within the City of Miami Gardens come on and give financial literacy presentations. I’m passionate about making a connection between our seniors and our youth, so I always have a young person included to share their voice and input. Our amazing City staff members also participate and share an abundance of information and updates related to my residents in the Seat One (1) area as well as city-wide.
I partnered with Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, and we fed over seven hundred families at our Thanksgiving food distribution this past November. We also provided hot meals to families in need at the four (4) schools in my area: North County, Skyway, Miami Gardens and Carol City Elementary Schools. In December, I did a major toy drive where we had over two hundred cars coming out to receive the gifts for the holiday season. There are ongoing partnerships with groups such as Riverview Crime Watch, who also supported the toy drive, and North County Citizens Association to address the evolving needs of the community. The toy drive is going to become an annual initiative from my office, and we are so excited about that for this year.
Looking Ahead
Looking ahead to the next quarter, I’m excited about programs like the Progressive Young Adult Committee for residents forty (40) years and under. We’ll partner with our neighboring communities like Miramar on that initiative. We are also putting together nature trips, where our seniors and youth can get out and interact with no televisions and no phones. Those are some things I’ve been planning that can be set in motion now that individuals are getting vaccinated, and we can soon get back out and engage with each other.
I encourage our residents to continue to follow the CDC guidelines. Even if you’ve already got the vaccine, continue to wear your mask, wash your hands properly and maintain social distancing. There are three (3) vaccines available: Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson. They’re all legitimate, and I would encourage people to take whichever one is accessible at the time. For full disclosure: my parents, other family members and I took the Pfizer vaccine. The way we beat this pandemic is by more people getting vaccinated. That’s the way we can get back to a normal way of life.