Thursday, March 28, 2024

Morning Miracles

This morning a dream came true.

I was sitting under a white tent in the parking lot of the Caridad Center, the air thick with what promised to be rain later on, the puffy blue clouds scudding past the cupola on the clinic.

Today marked the day that that building would begin its expansion—the groundbreaking of a new Caridad clinic addition—something those of us on the board or who work or volunteer at Caridad have been talking about for 15 years.

The building we were facing was showing a little age; it was built in 1997 a few years after the original double wide trailer was placed at the corner of Boynton Beach Boulevard and 441 to provide free health care for Palm Beach County’s working poor.

That small medical trailer was the vision of two Hagan Ranch Elementary School teachers—Connie Berry and Caridad Asensio—who saw first hand the plight of impoverished migrant schoolchildren in their classes. That vision has grown over the years to include a 400-person volunteer medical staff and more than 25,000 patient visits annually.

The day the present building opened it was already too small; the expansion by 11,000 square feet will allow Caridad to accommodate more people in both the dental and medical practices, and the old vision van will be retired, allowing eye care patients to be seen inside.

This morning as we started the program, I watched Luis Torres, a longtime volunteer, recite the Caridad prayer. Connie Berry thanked everyone, and mentioned our guardian angel, Caridad Asensio, who died in 2011, and was undoubtedly there in spirit. I looked at the faces of longtime board members, and clinic staff, and ageing doctors, all of who work to make the miracles happen there every week. Giving eyesight to a child, helping a cancer stricken mother get surgery. Paying for a funeral or a month’s rent, or helping children with homework—all done with compassion, with generosity, with the only motivation to reach out and help someone else. That’s how we’ve raised $3.8 million of the $5 million we need to finish the addition, through everyday miracles that add up to building something that is changing—and saving—lives.

I could see Connie fighting back the tears as she thanked us. I wondered if Caridad was watching, if she was somehow in the breeze out here on the edge of the farmland, urging us forward. I wondered where the next million dollars would come from and I swear I could hear her whispering not to worry, and that it would come.

And it will. That’s how Caridad operates. Its business is doing good, and the miracles just keep on coming. Today was one of them.

If you would like to donate to Caridad’s building expansion, please visitcaridad.org.

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