A New Playground for Broward Children's Center in Pompano
In 2022, The Episcopal Church of St. Mary Magdalene and St. Martin began offering grants to local non-profits that support needs in Northern Broward County. This years grant application deadline ended on September 15th. While reviewing the grant applications, Father Lee Davis noticed one grant request from the Broward Children's Center, located in Pompano Beach.
The Broward Children's Center provides therapeutic, educational and medical services to children who are medically fragile and/or developmentally disabled and was established in 1971. The PPEC (Prescribed Pediatric Extended Care Center) serves children from birth through 21 years of age. Any child who meets the criteria and who lives in Broward County is able to attend the PPEC. Both St. Martin's and St. Mary Magdalene, the two churches who merged together to form Sts. MM&M, had a long history of volunteerism with Broward Children's Center throughout past years.
The center was asking for a $10,000 grant to build a new accessible and inclusive playground for the PPEC. The grant application stated that the current playgrond was not accessible to all of the children who could benefit from its use. A new playground that was accessible to all their children would help to promote enhanced social interactions, educational and therapeutic benefits for the children in their care.
Because of the history that Sts. MM&M membership had with the center, Father Lee approached the outreach committee of the parish and asked them to consider funding this need through the church's outreach budget rather than through the grant committee. The decision was unanimous, with the committee expressing the belief that this gift would help some children in our local community not only play, but to learn and thrive.
Sts. MM&M will fund the project in October and the Broward Children's Center believes that the project will be complete by the end of the summer 2024.
*Sts. MM&M currently gives a total of $50,000 of grants to local non-profits and budgets over $150,000 a year for outreach projects such as this playground for the PPEC that support needs in the local community.