Coins were tossed into a well of love last Monday evening to help ‘Make Wishes Happen’ during the Hope for Families Center Annual Dinner at the Bent Pine Golf Club. Co-chairs Louise Schmitt and Lee Albro with Gloria Pappalardo turned the room into a magical space – making it easy to believe that wishes really can come true.

Guests enjoyed cocktails and hors d’oeuvres before devouring a surf-and-turf dinner and an oozing chocolate lava cake, before bidding on live-auction items.

“We had 111 families last year, that’s 368 people. And 236 of them were children. People forget the impact on the children, the trauma,” said Diana Grossi, executive director, adding they estimate housing 500 residents this fiscal year.

Once residents have saved two months’ rent and have stable employment, HFC works with the Treasure Coast Homeless Services Council to place families in permanent housing.

“Our goal is to get them in and out of here in three months. Research shows that the quicker we can get them into permanent housing and stable, the more successful they’re going to be,” noted Grossi.

“Our vision is for our families to break the cycle,” said Dr. William Cooney, board president. “We empower our families to bring themselves up from homelessness.”

Cooney said taxpayers save $31,000 a year by taking people out of homelessness, adding that the 2018 Point in Time Homeless Count recorded 1,059 adults and 483 children were homeless on the Treasure Coast, living on the street, in cars and in the woods.

His wish was for community support to help fund the $500,000 annual cost of running the facility, inviting everyone to join the new $10K Club, which funds two families for three months.

“Tonight is about the children,” said Grossi, sharing the story of a little boy living in a 10-foot-by-10-foot room with his family. “Imagine the fear, imagine the trauma. The children are the invisible ones in the homeless families.”

“When I first got to the center I was afraid,” shared former HFC resident Jessica Barbosa. “Never in my life did I think I would experience something like this. I felt like a failure to my kids. The Hope for Family Center became my second family. Every step of the way they were with me.”

The nonprofit assists homeless families to become self-sufficient and financially stable by providing them with a safe place to live, financial literacy training and employment services.

Next up is the March 4 Vero’s Top Chef Challenge Qualifier and March 18 Top Chef Finale.

For more information, visit hopeforfamiliescenter.org.