I would have posted yesterday, but we had an event to cover for the paper and then had to scoot home to work the article for a deadline. Notwithstanding getting jammed up at times when I have multiple articles in one week, I (and Hubby, too) do discover all sorts of things about the community we would not otherwise. I think I may have previously mentioned the Mariachi Academy (technically Conservatory) we have here. If I forgot to, this is the link to the article I did last year. http://www.southdadenewsleader.com/a-special-invitation-to-mariachi-students/article_37c73868-9e68-11e9-bceb-e7908cf587c5.html

I did a follow-up about their performance and have mentioned them another time or two in conjunction with other events. We had been notified about a press conference yesterday because of a performance the students were going to be doing in a farm field. We were a bit unclear as to what was going on. They were somehow involved in something called Altisimo Live (https://altisimolive.com) Once we arrived at yes indeed a field, we had a chance to talk to our guys in the midst of getting ready for their performance. With Cinco de Mayo celebrations disrupted as have been lots of things, a group of people got together and said, “We’ll have this major streaming festival instead.” More than 50 celebrities signed on and as it happens, one of the co-hosts has a soft spot in his heart for the Mariachi students. He reached out and basically said if they could figure out the technical piece of linking in and handle the other logistical arrangements, they could be part of an event that would be seen/heard by hundreds of thousands (maybe millions) from coast-to-coast and internationally. Oh yeah, they had 72 hours in which to make it happen.

I’ll link everyone to the article later this week, but it was a truly great experience. Since the press conference was during rehearsal time and we arrived a bit early, we were able to get the information/photos we needed and back home in time to tune into the show. I had it on YouTube and Hubby may have been on Instagram or Facebook. And that is how Eva Longoria, actress and the co-host, introduced a group of students and their instructors from here in Homestead to a whole lot of people.

As I have explained previously in this blog, one of the aspects of writing for our weekly community paper is I am out and about meeting quite a few of the local non-profits. People contact the paper or me directly at times to pass on information. One of the things I always explain is there are so many different organizations that people cannot support them all. However, each time I highlight a new group, that particular cause may be the very one an individual feels strongly about. That might be the case with Project Moises. Here’s the link to the full article: http://www.southdadenewsleader.com/eedition/page-a/page_6a61b9e6-43e9-525e-9644-ed109e8a019e.html  (Story in bottom half of front page and continued on A5).

Vicky Saldivar’s first grandchild was diagnosed with Lukemia when Moises was in kindergarten. In many, many visits to the cancer ward during what was lengthy, but thankfully successful treatment for him, she was often moved to tears at the sight of so many children in the hospital. She wanted to do something, but as she said, she wasn’t wealthy. What she was soon inspired to though is amazing. She crochets and is very creative. In substitute teaching for third-graders who were reading, “Charlotte’s Web”, she came up with the idea of making “character hats”. After all, hospitals are almost always chilly and hair loss as a side effect of treatment is almost inevitable. Practical as well as whimsical, a hat was likely to bring a smile for at least a moment. She did one even better with the idea to pair a hat with a book, the hat matched to a character in that particular book. She has now created hundreds of hats and in addition to delivering locally, she has

Project Moises Hats and Books

sent them as far away as Los Angeles. The photo is of her and two grandsons with a sample of the hats. Her Facebook page is The Project Moises https://www.facebook.com/groups/1753859501559205/

A tricky maneuver for demonstration

When we made the decision to relocate here, it was because of the scuba diving. I could write anywhere and being in a place with an active military base was not one of our criteria. It would have been a nice “plus”, but unlike quite a few people we know, it was not a deciding factor. Even though Homestead Air Reserve Base (HARB) has few benefits for us, in our work with the community paper, we always have “first cut” on any military related event. When people ask us if we miss the military, the answer is, “no”, as our time has come and gone. That doesn’t mean we don’t tell “war stories” as all of us are prone to do.

It is nice though to occasionally spend time around the military and yesterday was one of them. The U.S. Army Parachute Team, the Golden Knights, come here for three months each year for their winter training. They appear at different events and this year for the first time, they invited other teams to come in for this final week for them to do what is referred to as joint and interoperability training. That means training with units you don’t normally train with. In this case, they had two other Army teams – one from Fort Bragg, NC and one from Fort Benning, GA. The U.S. Navy team was in from San Diego, CA, and the U.S. Air Force Academy Team from CO. The British Team rounded things out.

Due to an oddity of timing, Hubby and I actually spent about four hours with them as they went up and then did maneuvers in the air and made these incredible landings on a fairly small field. They were doing multiple drops which means groups are split, go up, drop, land, repack their parachutes and go again. Hubby actually went up in the plane to get some interior shots and I opted to stay on the ground. (It’s very noisy on those aircraft and they are

not built for comfort. I did enough of that when I was on active duty.)

It was tiring, but fun and the piece I did for the paper was short since it was primarily a photo opportunity. I did take pages of notes though since I had the extra time.

Demonstration Parachute Team from Fort Bragg – The Black Daggers

Last Saturday was worse than usual from a time-management perspective. Hubby had to guide a dive, but the Camera Club was also having a tent at the City’s Eco Fair and that happens to be our tent. So, I had to drop the tent and other items at the park, then go to a nearby location to cover a story for the paper, then get back to the museum (across from the park) to open it early since the Eco Fair started at noon and our director doesn’t usually come in until 1:00, the regular time. Then it was a late lunch, take lunch to Hubby who had come straight from work, and home for a bit to get ready to go to the football game in my Chamber of Commerce Board Member role. (We did only stay for the first quarter, but that took us until almost 8:30) This litany is not to garner sympathy, but rather to semi-explain why I wasn’t wildly enthusiastic about going to cover the story. Except, this is another of those occasions where I met a young woman with a remarkable story. The piece will run in tomorrow’s paper.

The woman, who founded Sadie’s Daughter and later Sadie’s Kids, did so because she was placed into foster care at age seven and remained in the system until age eighteen. The abuse and childhood trauma she had suffered were heartbreaking to hear and even though she was determined to make a better life through education, there was the teenage pregnancy to deal with and several different paths she took before settling on the right one for her. In the “not your usual” angle, she did become an automobile mechanic and did some modeling on the side. And yes, in looking at her, the modeling was easy to see. Her non-profit is dedicated to mentoring foster children/teens and teaching life skills such as financial literacy, how to prepare for a job interview, etc., Her own experiences give her solid credibility and each of her now three children as well as her husband often join her in helping. She ultimately decided to major in Psychology, works her actual job with autistic children and is chipping away at a Masters. Give yourself a lift and check out https://www.sadiesdaughter.org

This is actually a follow-on to the post about STEM and STEAM. I just sent in the article for this week’s South Dade News Leader, so consider this as an “insider” preview.  Each year non-profit grants are awarded by the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA). These are special funds put in place after Hurricane Andrew that will expire in another few years. The CRA has different grant programs and one is focused on non-profits that support education, enrichment, etc., within a specified area of town where many families struggle economically. There are always more applicants than funding and the committee carefully reads all proposals to determine which ones are most likely to be able to have an impact and responsibly manage the funds.

Brandon Okpalobi, founder and CEO of DIBIA Athletic Development, established Dibia Dream in 2014 as a non-profit in order to expand their community outreach to students. While this is not uncommon within corporations, Brandon’s background, success, and sincerity in what he does is truly heart-warming. Originally from New Orleans, he was removed from his second grade class for being such a disruptive influence. In the way alternative classes are supposed to work, his life was pointed in the right direction and he learned to channel his tumultuous emotions correctly. I may be able to hear the whole story someday, but he left New Orleans later, was a walk-on to the U of Miami basketball team and in founding his business, he’s won a string of awards. From the very beginning, he did outreach for under-served youth because he knows it can make a difference.  All their different programs are listed on their website of https://dibiadream.org

Even though there are moments when trying to juggle writing for the paper and other things is tiring, getting to meet people like Brandon is always worthwhile.