The Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Florida hosted their “Faces of the Future” breakfast Friday at the Tupperware Brands branch in Kissimmee. Club members shared their dreams for the future while community leaders pledged support to help make those visions a reality.
The Tupperware Brands branch, open nearly 20 years, serves about 165 members and partners closely with nearby elementary and middle schools. “This is one of our high-functioning clubs and our flagship of Osceola,” said Regional Director Nicco Palmero.
But that’s just a fraction of the 13,000 students served in all 39 clubs across the five counties that comprise the Central Florida region, all under the leadership of President and CEO Jamie Merrill. “So many of our club members are waking up in unfortunate circumstances plagued with trauma; neighborhoods with violence; poverty situations.
So many of them can’t see beyond the four blocks that maybe they grew up with, so they don’t even know how to dream, or what to dream,” Merrill said. “That’s why we exist. We create a space that, no matter what circumstance these kids came from, they find safety, security, meaningful relationships with adults who care about them, transformational relationships, places where they can learn, grow, dream, and thrive. It’s why we say, ‘Great futures start here.’”
To learn more about local Boys & Girls Clubs, visit https://bgccf.org
Friday’s breakfast featured a stirring AI presentation in which club members described their career dreams, then saw digital renderings of themselves as adults in those future roles. “The children who walk through our doors are tomorrow’s leaders, caregivers, coaches and innovators,” said Osceola County Board Member Jose Bastias. “When we invest in them, we are investing in the future of our entire community.”
Local law enforcement leaders say they are big believers in the Boys & Girls Clubs. St. Cloud Police Chief Douglas Goerke said he tries to spend time at the St. Cloud branch every Friday afternoon. “I grew up in Long Island, New York, and we didn’t have the Boys & Girls Club. At the age of nine, my mother died in a car accident, and we literally had to raise ourselves. Now, God blessed what I turned out to be, and my sister is an opera singer. So we turned out well,” he said. “But it’s such a worthy cause, to give a space to children that need a space to help them grow, especially some of them that are really suffering through some horrific things in their lives … things that would probably cripple an adult.”
Kissimmee Police Chief Charles Broadway says his department has a great partnership with the club. “Our first engagement with our youth should be a positive one, and Boys & Girls Clubs has been able to create that environment for us,” he said. “I’m thankful for groups like this because even for me, as a young man growing up, as a teenager, being involved in Boys & Girls Clubs and other clubs have helped me be the person I am today.”
Other community partners, including Toho Water Authority, KUA, the Osceola Sheriff’s Office, and Mid Florida Bank, help sustain the local club. But Bastias noted a funding gap, “It takes $1 million annually to operate just this club alone. Imagine all the other clubs that we have in the organization,” he said. “Our goal today is to raise over $175,000 toward bridging that gap, and that requires all of us together, investing in the dreams of these young people.”
If you would like to invest in the futures of local students and give to the Boys & Girls Clubs, visit https://bgccf.org/?form=donate.
