In October, Boys Town South Florida celebrated its 30th anniversary through life-changing preventative services and 60,000 children’s lives positively impacted. Current and former staff, board members and supporters gathered at Due South to celebrate three decades of services to help prevent child abuse and neglect and empower parents to build a healthy family environment to raise their youth. “It is very special to be a part of this milestone at Boys Town South Florida, and I feel truly blessed to have committed staff and volunteers to continue Fr. Flanagan’s legacy in our community”, said Executive Director Bethany Lacey.
Boys Town South Florida partnered with Brian Wood, a local artist and mental health counselor with the Armory Art Center. Brian graciously created a beautiful art piece that highlights the organization’s thirty years of service and the sixty thousand kids served in the South Florida community. The Boys Town colors are showcased in the background and border of the painting, with rays of light shining in yellow to represent God’s love over all people. The six children represent the sixty thousand kids who Boys Town has served, and the adults represent the supportive people in the children’s lives. Boys Town’s goal has been to welcome kids from every race, color, and creed by showing genuine love for each person without any biases. The art piece represents that by showing a mixture of different colors and a sense of welcoming. The art piece is called ‘Happy’ to represent the emotion that kids and families experience when healing occurs.
Whether it is 1917 when Father Flanagan founded Boys Town in Nebraska or 2021 at our South Florida area, our believe that EVERY child deserves a chance to be loved remains a core value at Boys Town. Some of the ways that our staff help children and heal families is through preventative programs delivered at home, at school and out in the community to help families build better relationships, access mental and behavior health services, deal with child misbehavior in a positive way, access school-based services and link parents to supportive community resources.
A big thank you to past and current individual donors, foundations, businesses, partnering organizations and corporations for helping Boys Town South Florida further its mission to change the way America cares for children and families.