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Camillus House News
Camillus House serves Thanksgiving feast attracting larger gathering of poor and homeless persons
L-R: Tony Cabrera, Board Member; Mayor Manny Diaz; Cheryl Rees, Senior VP of Marketing for Ocean Bank; Commissioner Marc Sarnoff; Dr. Paul R. Ahr, President & CEO of Camillus House; Ray Casas, Board Member.
Camillus House staff and scores of volunteers celebrated Thanksgiving Day by serving a traditional holiday dinner of turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce and pies to approximately 1,500 meals who are homeless and poor on Thursday. The feast was provided under a white tent outside Camillus House, 726 NE 1st Avenue, along NE 8th Street.
This year’s Thanksgiving event welcomed more guests than in the previous years due to the success of Camillus House’s recent Courtyard Program. This service opened the gates to shelter’s property and created a covered courtyard area where homeless persons and people living on the streets can sleep overnight in safety. The Courtyard Program now shelters 270 persons in the covered courtyard on a nightly basis. As a courtesy, these current Courtyard Program guests were the first ones to be served the special dinner.
Since 1998, the Camillus House Thanksgiving dinner has been underwritten by Ocean Bank, a long-time supporter of Camillus House and the mission of the Brothers of the Good Shepherd. This support has made it possible for Camillus House to provide thousands of traditional Thanksgiving meals to individuals who are poor and homeless in the community.
The preparations for the celebration began a few days before, with Camillus House’s chefs bringing nearly 150 turkeys to the Hyatt Regency at Miami Convention Center for roasting, since the Camillus facilities are too small to accommodate the large number of turkeys needed. Meanwhile, more than 160 volunteers prepared food and created centerpieces and decorations for the traditional Thanksgiving feast. On Thursday morning, volunteers set the tables and served the dinner to Camillus guests.
Camillus House serves more than 1,500 meals a day, providing more than 600,000 free, hot meals in 2007.
When the Courtyard Program first started on January 2007, an average of 200 persons spent the night in the covered area outside the main shelter. As the program’s reputation grew and the courtyard became a starting point to find rehabilitation programs to break the cycle of homelessness, the average number of nightly guests swelled to 270, including both men and women.
The Courtyard Program is totally dependent on donations, including grants from organizations such as Downtown Development Authority and the Community Redevelopment Agency. It welcomes support from corporations like Ocean Bank, as well as the generosity of individuals, to cover the costs of this service to the Miami community, and to persons who are homeless and living on the streets.
