The Miami Rescue Mission andBroward Outreach Centers held their annual Christmas in July celebration in Miami, Hollywood, and Pompano Beach Friday.
The celebration is a combination Christmas and Fourth of July block party, blending together the themes of “giving” and “independence” that each of the two holidays represent.
The Mission seeks to provide more opportunities to create independence for members of the homeless community in South Florida, who number more than 4,000 in Miami-Dade County alone. The event featured a career fair and booths for services like mental health, housing and legal assistance.
Attendees could meet individually with a counselor to determine what kinds of help and resources they needed.
“If we can’t help them, we immediately plug them into another agency,” says Marilyn Brummitt, the director of development at the Miami Rescue Mission.
For the “giving” portion of the event, the Mission gave away free haircuts, showers, clothing and a big lunch to all attendees.
This was all in addition to what Brummitt called “the real biggie giveaway” -- about 600 pairs of sneakers for children. The sneakers were wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper and given away as “early Christmas gifts” to the young attendees of the celebration.
“They’ll be going back to school soon and we want them to go back to school with brand new sneakers,” explains Brummitt.
Providing a fun and exciting day for children was a main focus of the event. A “Children’s Corner” featured moon bounces, face paint, a magician and appearances by Santa and Uncle Sam themselves.
Madeline Corujo attended Friday’s celebration with her son Miguel, and expressed her gratitude to the Mission for creating a fun environment for Miguel and other children.
“It’s a break. Kids forget about whatever, you know, is bothering them, they have fun with the face paint and all the activities and it’s like a stress reliever. It’s really fun.”
Brummitt expects that nearly 3,000 people will be served at the event’s three locations.
