Like a warm hug, residents of the Windsor and John’s Island communities are enveloping the Dasie Bridgewater Hope Center with their support and business acumen. Through a newly launched awareness and fundraising campaign, they have branded it: “The Miracle on 64th Avenue: A safe place for children to envision their future and create a productive life for themselves.”
Louis Brown, Keiona Matthews, Tyrone Davis and Amaya Wright. Photos: Mary Schenkel
“It’s such a good theme for what we want to do: create a level playing field so that these kids will have the same opportunity as those who are well off,” says board member Glenn DeSimone, a John’s Island resident.
The Wabasso-based nonprofit, which provides afterschool and summer programs to children in grades K-12, was founded in 2001 by Verna Wright in memory of her mother, Dasie Bridgewater. “I put the ‘Hope’ on the end of it to give the kids that come here hope,” says Wright.
“We’re not a babysitting service,” Wright stresses. It is instead a place to change children’s lives. “We’re changing the way they think, the way they do things. It doesn’t happen overnight; it takes time.
But we have to break that cycle of poverty and the cycle of ‘gimme.’ That’s my whole focus.”
She says she encourages children to think in terms of ‘I want an education,’ ‘I want to do better’ or ‘I want a career,’ rather than just settling for whatever comes their way.
The center’s creation was indirectly through the development of the exclusive RedStick Golf Club. Longtime John’s Island resident Warren Schwerin, a RedStick founder, explains that for years Wright’s mother, and later Wright herself, had a wonderful fruit and vegetable stand at the corner of CR 510 and 58th Avenue, where youngsters would congregate to do their homework.
“Verna’s mother had been a good friend of ours; she was terrific. She died of leukemia but she had put five kids through school,” says Schwerin. Wright approached him about using one of several residences on the RedStick property to start an afterschool program in her honor.
“We saw firsthand the impact that Verna’s mother and she were making on the young kids right around our development and I thought it was pretty important to give them a hand,” says Schwerin.
Dasie Hope initially found a home in the former Wabasso Masonic Lodge building and two years later the county agreed to its relocation into the then abandoned Fredrick Douglas School on 64th Avenue, off CR 510.
The Warren and Virginia Schwerin Family Foundation has enabled a number of major improvements to the facility as well as much-needed equipment and supplies, and even a fundraising initiative through the Hope Thrift Shop on U.S. 1.
“Verna’s had a major impact on that community; she’s really a leader. During the two hurricanes the Dasie Hope Center became the center of the community; it goes far beyond just the kids. There’s an outreach there that’s important to the whole Wabasso community. Wabasso is a very special little place,” says Schwerin who, while no longer on the board, remains committed to the organization. RedStick also maintains close ties to the community.
“My vision is for kids to get out of the cycle they’re in. They need strong computer and reading and writing skills. There are plenty of opportunities, but if they haven’t got those skills they’re not going to be able to seize them,” says Schwerin.
Windsor resident Cynthia Bardes introduced the organization to that community, including fellow resident Barbara Hackett. The two worked on a Windsor Dog Show fundraiser and both now serve on the board.
Hackett also facilitated the funding for significant donations which enabled further expansions, including an “iWonder” STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Lab, where two retired science teachers now volunteer, and an outdoor sports area for tennis and basketball.
“I was always just enchanted with what Verna does there with these kids. It felt like an extraordinary organization. They were just really on their own; this little community that had very important needs that were not being met,” says Hackett. “Verna is such an extraordinary woman and I felt the kids should have a more level playing field with everybody else.”
Hackett says the expansions have added to what Wright has already accomplished, changing its trajectory with the STEM Lab. The availability of computers is particularly important, as many of the students come from households where technology is a luxury.
“I would like to see Dasie Hope achieve a more secure financial foundation going forward and be able to raise more money based on what they have already achieved,” says Hackett. “I think they have an exceptional role to play in helping these children in Wabasso. I think it’s been difficult for them to raise money in the past but now with the STEM Lab and the basketball court and the building in great shape, I think they’ll be able to function in a way that is very compelling to donors statewide and countrywide.”
The board sees 2019 as an important year in terms of fundraising. Board treasurer Stuart Graham, another John’s Island resident, said he was hooked the first time he showed up to help out in the afterschool program.
“Verna is so dedicated to these kids. And now with the generous gift of a major benefactor, I think that the STEM lab in particular will be very significant for those children who do not choose to go to college,” says Graham.
He notes that with a completion certificate from a rigorous STEM curriculum, students can get high-paying jobs in many industries, particularly computer sciences.
“It’s also a way, perhaps, for some of the parents of these children to use this opportunity to learn new skills,” adds Graham. “I think this is going to be a real game-changer for Dasie Hope.”
“We’re not going to be a Boys and Girls Club, but we still do good work and we need support,” says DeSimone. “Our ultimate goal is to create awareness so that Verna can run this without having to worry about where the next dollar comes from. She now has a facility that is very special. What we want to do is allow her to have funding that comes in on a regular basis.”
Each student – 100 are currently enrolled – is assessed and monitored to determine individual growth and areas of concern, efforts are coordinated with local teachers and extracurricular activities are plentiful.
Their accomplishments are impressive: 95 percent pass the annual FSA (Florida Standards Assessments) exams and 100 percent have graduated high school (58 to date). Of those, 10 are currently enrolled in college and 26 have received college degrees.
Abigail Bass, one of many success stories, remembers meeting Wright as a Sebastian River High School sophomore. Bass needed volunteer hours as an enrollee in the International Baccalaureate program so Wright told her to stop by and visit. She did, and 10 years after graduating still relishes their relationship.
“It’s a very well-rounded program – everything from helping little kids with their homework to making great friendships. You meet lots of extraordinary people in the community. It stays with you,” says Bass. “It creates some invaluable relationships. It’s more than just the education side of it. It’s very personal; it’s a good life program.”
She should know. After Schwerin gave her a set of golf clubs, Bass quickly developed her game. She played on the Sebastian River High golf team and earned a golf scholarship to FIT in Melbourne, from which she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business in 2013. Bass is currently employed as a mortgage loan originator – the youngest in the tri-county area – at Caliber Home Loans.
Wright shares a story about another young man who was in the sixth grade when he started at Dasie Hope. “The first day he came, he wanted to know what we were doing here. I told him we were tutoring kids so they could do better in school. He said, ‘Oh I don’t want to do that. I’m going to come back tomorrow and tear this place up.’ I said ‘OK, you come back tomorrow.’”
He did return, but with two friends who appreciated what the program could do for them, and decided he had changed his mind. “That same kid went through our program through 12th grade and ended up going to college in Tallahassee. He finished and now he’s working for the Department of Agriculture in Tallahassee. And I hear from him every Christmas; he sends me a Christmas card,” says Wright.
“Dasie Hope is my heart; when I say that it means the kids are my heart. I wish you could see passion,” says Wright. “I just want to expose these kids to a different way of life in terms of – you’ve got to think different to be different. And to be different you’ve got to do different.”
For more information, visit dasiehope.org.
