More Than 400 Guests Attended Heart 4 Winter Haven Annual Vision Banquet
by James Coulter
Heart 4 Winter Haven, true to its name, is an organization that has a heart for its community, specifically for the local homeless and impoverished. Their mission statement is to eliminate childhood poverty within Polk County by 2030.
Evidently, plenty of other people in the community agree with them and their mission. More than 400 guests attended the organization’s annual vision banquet, hosted on Thursday at Heartland Church in Winter Haven.
That evening’s festivities drew in a full house with guests enjoying dinner catered by The Catering Company and musical performances provided by the First Baptist Choir.
Representatives from Heart 4 Winter Haven also shared stories about their organization’s great work toward accomplishing their overall goal of eliminating poverty–especially childhood poverty–from Winter Haven and the whole county.
President Brad Beatty was delighted by that evening’s turnout. Not only did he enjoy being able to mingle with residents and entrepreneurs who share his organization’s vision and mission, but he also appreciated how so many supported their shared goal of assisting the local homeless and impoverished.
“Our expectations for tonight, it [the banquet] has exceeded every other event we have done,” Beatty said. “It is already off to a great start financially, so we are excited to see what is going to happen here tonight…We are enjoying the energy from a great group of people from all over Winter Haven.”
Proceeds from the banquet will go toward financing their organization’s services and programs. One such program, the Housing Partnership of Winter Haven, helps to re-house homeless families, especially those with young children in local schools.
“Our organization is laser-focused on ending child homelessness by the end of the year 2030, so that supports all the programs that we will need to support families to get them re-housed and to get them stabilized so we can put child homelessness to an end,” Beatty said. “It is our 2030 goal is to end child homelessness, so we have a lot of work to do, it requires housing and inventory and doing a lot to equip families to make them more stable, so we have a lot of work ahead.”
To learn more about Heart 4 Winter Haven, visit their website at: https://www.heart4wh.org/
