By LINDA CHION KENNEY
Georgina Romero said it was essential for Enterprising Latinas to play a role in this year’s Back 2 School Bash at the Hillsborough County Fairgrounds in Dover, where children had their pick of 2,500 donated backpacks, filled with fresh supplies for the new school year.
She said she learned of the ongoing multi-organization, backpack giveaway last year, through the Emergency Care Help Organization (ECHO) in Riverview, when the newly opening AdventHealth Hospital-Riverview offered its location for the 2024 giveaway.
Having a connection with ECHO is essential, Romero said, as the center has not yet extended its reach to Wimauma and other south county ZIP codes. And while that is the plan to do so eventually, Romero said there is no need to wait, and Saturday’s event was one example toward that end.
“We found our own partners and worked through the community, to get donations” for this year’s backpack giveaway, Romero said. “And while ECHO doesn’t yet cover the Wimauma ZIP code, we know that Wimauma, Ruskin and Balm need this aid as well.”
Linda Chion Kenney photos
Georgina Romero, left, of Enterprising Latinas of Wimauma, with Debbie Smith of ECHO
Romero in January was named manager at the Wimauma Opportunity Center for Enterpirsing Latinas, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering women, particularly Latinas, through various programs aimed at economic development. The organization focuses on creating pathways for women to achieve economic prosperity and community engagement, offering assistance with business development, loans, employment, education and training, and community resources. The group’s board chair is Rocio Smith, of Achieva Credit Union; its vice chair is Danielle Hernandez, founder, DVH Law Group.
“We see the need to get together with [other like-minded] organizations and, especially so, to share those services in the south shore community,” Romero said. “Wimauma is growing a lot. We have new construction, new building, but we also have a lot of low-income people living here. At Enterprising Latinas, we try to empower all of these families with services and training because we know everything is getting expensive.”
With the inflationary cost of living comes the need “to prepare yourself to get better jobs and to get better off financially,” Romero said. “We have a lot of people who come here with a profession but don’t know the language. They are prepared in their own language but not in English.”
Enterprising Latinas offers instruction in English as a Second Language and help with earning a high school equivalency diploma, or GED, to ensure workers have the documentation they need to secure employment. “Now it is important, very important, that you possess some type of certification to get a decent job,” Romero said. “Even now to work at McDonald’s you need a GED.”
Romero said through Enterprising Latinas, she worked to help Wimauma draft a community plan; it was approved by a former Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC), but it has been reconsidered by the current board. As timelines change, the mission remains, she added, as “Wimauma deserves to be a town with a nice library, a civic center and a downtown area.”
Meanwhile, a plus for the community is this month’s opening of Aquilla J. Morgan High School, the largest school built under contract with the Hillsborough County school district, the nation’s seventh-largest school district.
“We know that Lennard High in Ruskin is at full capacity,” Romero said, which is true also for Sumner High in Balm. “It’s about time that Wimauma has a school of its own.”
Romero said she attended the July 31 ribbon-cutting for Morgan, at 1712 West Lake Drive, and found the massive, three-story school campus “beautiful.” She also said it was nice to know it was built by someone who used to live in Wimauma and believes in Wimauma.
Romero was referring to Jose Gomez, an associate with Harvard Jolly PBK, a full-service architectural firm specializing in educational design. The company worked with Envision, a minority-owned business working since 2016 with The Beck Group, a design-build firm. Beck/Envision was the construction manager for Morgan High.
Flash back to the school’s groundbreaking: Gomez spoke about his education at Sickles High, and Nuri Ayres, the mother of today’s superintendent of schools, Van Ayres, who opened the school as its charter principal.
Georgina Romero, at the Hillsborough County Fairgrounds, after thousands of kids received backpacks filled with supplies
“Looking back, I see how those fundamental moments, those words of encouragement I was getting from my teachers and coaches, they really impacted me,” Gomez said at the time. “It’s like drops that fill a bucket. You don’t know where you’re headed, you just keep pressing, you just keep walking forward and the dots begin to connect.”
As for Morgan High, he added, “It excites me it’s going into Wimauma, my home, the same home that shaped me to become the person I am today.”
For more on Enterprising Latinas, which is located at 5128 State Road 674, Wimauma, visit www.enterprisinglatinas.org/ or call the nonprofit at 813-699-5811. For more on Morgan High School, call 813-922-6000 or visit www.hillsboroughschools.org/o/morgan/.