About five years ago when the Hillsborough County Parks, Recreation and Conservation department changed the way it handled its after-school programs for youth, Bethune Park’s programs were due to be stopped because of lack of attendance.
Carla Miles
But Carla Miles, the Sun City Center resident who, single-handedly, had begun a mission to help the children from Wimauma more than 15 years ago, knew there was a huge Catch-22 involved: The Parks department stopped running the program due to low attendance. But attendance was low because the youths in that area could not afford to go.
So Miles approached RCMA with a plan. RCMA, or Redlands Christian Migrant Association, is a qualified Charter School and child-care facility in many county locations, and now also operates the programs at Bethune Park in Wimauma with money from the Hope Fund and other local donors.
“The Parks department was going to just leave the building standing there vacant,” Miles said. “I convinced them it would be better off if people were using it. There’s much less chance it will be vandalized this way.”
The Hope Fund can only collect donations and recruit volunteers. It has to have an organization to partner with to continue to fund children’s programs.
“RCMA was only too glad to help,” Miles said. “We can’t start at the same time as school, though, because so many of our volunteers are snowbirds.”
That’s why Miles wanted county residents to know about the work that’s going on to help children from that area.
“Oct. 29, there will be an orientation of new volunteers at the Wimauma Seniors Center [5615 North Street], and we certainly could use more sign-ups,” Miles said.
The Hope Fund provides scholarships to the programs now run there by RCMA for children who cannot otherwise afford to attend.
While RCMA serves mostly migrants, people do not have to be migrant workers to get help.
Some of the things provided by the program for the school-age children are drug- and sex-education classes, reading, woodworking, sports (like marathon running), a Chess Club, and working with mentors and tutors.
Because most of the children involved don’t have the money to join the Parks and Recreation programs, Miles worked to get her Fund established as a 501(c)3 tax status so all charitable donations would be tax-deductible. Then she set about getting a board together, along with a host of volunteers and community partners, including houses of worship, civic organizations and businesses.
“One-hundred percent of our help is volunteer,” she said in an interview July 5. “We don’t pay anyone any salary.”
Grants and donations, such as the recent $2,135 from the United Community Church, have paid full scholarships for kids who want to take part in programs.
To find out more about it or to volunteer, visit www.2ezwebdesign.com/hopefund or call Miles at 813-634-4268.
