The Elderly Affairs Committee and volunteers provided lunch and Girl Scout cookies to more than 150 seniors in Miami Lakes on March 31. The pandemic era tradition is the Traveling Bingo Drive-thru, the 35th one. They are meant to take the place of weekly lunches once enjoyed by elders in town that were postponed because of COVID-19.
Of those 150 seniors who received lunch from Trattoria Pampered Chef Italian Restaurant that day, 41 were homebound and their meals were delivered via Freebee, said Dottie Wix, chair of the Elderly Affairs Committee. Sponsors for the day included Access Insurance Group, S.T.E.P.S in the Right Direction and the Town of Miami Lakes.
Wix said that the number of recipients has nearly doubled since the lunch events began last August. I think it’s the socialization,” Wix said of the need for human contact after the isolation of the pandemic. Wix said the drive-thrus will continue until the town reopens the Mary Collins Community Center, where the committee holds its get-togethers.
Shown above at left are Girl Scout Troop Leader Jari Pearson; Committee member Xiomara Castillo; Miami Lakes Vice Mayor Luis Collazo; Committee Chair Dottie Wix; Girl Scout Daniella Pearson; Committee Vice Chair Lourdes Corvo, Volunteer Nancy Rogers who is chair of the town’s Public Safety Committee, and Committee member Omida Bomboust. Shown above at right are Committee member Rosario Navarro; Committee Vice Chair Lourdes Corvo and Girl Scout Daniella Pearson.
Photos by Willie Sanchez, Town of Miami Lakes.