By LOIS KINDLE
lekindle@aol.com
Inspira Tampa Bay recently hosted an event called Hurricane Recovery Buckets and collaborated with United Way Suncoast to recruit volunteers. The purpose of the Inspira event was to help folks still recovering from Hurricanes Helene and Milton in 2024.
Volunteers from the Friends of Wimauma and The Silly Sinatras and other volunteers sort and distribute food and cleaning supplies to the 120 families who attended Inspira Tampa Bay’s recent Hurricane Recovery Buckets event.
“Many of these people endured major losses and had to start from scratch, others are dealing with mental health, emotional fatigue and stress issues related to those storms. Most are financially struggling.”
A group of volunteers from the Tampa Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority helped distribute 120 hurricane cleanup kits to low-income families from Wimauma and Ruskin.
Joining the effort were members of the Friends of Wimauma and the Sun City Center-based singing group The Silly Sinatras, who donated and gave away packages of frozen hot dogs, chicken and macaroni and cheese.
“This was a wonderful example of multiple community partners working together for a common cause,” said Luz Gaona, Inspira’s founder and executive director.
The buckets and their contents were made possible through a portion of a $193,552 grant from the Florida Disaster Fund through the Volunteer Florida Foundation in late 2025 for Inspira’s Thrive after the Storm initiative.
“Through generous donations made to the Florida Disaster Fund, the Volunteer Florida Foundation is able to support trusted nonprofit organizations working on disaster response and long-term recovery efforts across Florida, helping communities rebuild and recover,” said Brittany Dover, the foundation’s external affairs director.
Every bucket was filled with more than $100 in mold-fighting cleaning supplies — including Clorox, Pine-Sol, scrub brushes, brooms, rags and industrial trash bags — plus hygiene products like soap, loofas, toothpaste and toothbrushes.
“We started at 8:30 a.m. and gave away all 120 buckets within the first hour,” Gaona said. “This event was a powerful demonstration of collaboration, preparedness and community resilience.
“It was a very successful event, and there’s an obvious need in the community for others like it,” she continued. “We’re so grateful to the organizations whose volunteers came to help.”
About Inspira Tampa Bay Inc.
Inspira Tampa Bay is a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit with a team of dedicated speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, certified therapy assistants and dedicated enthusiastic community volunteers who serve the needs of neurodivergent children and their low-income families.
The charity offers a full menu of programs, including Literacy Mentoring; age-appropriate social groups aimed at helping children improve communication and social skills; therapist-led volunteer tutoring; Developmental Handwriting; Letters Formation Handwriting; Peer Mentorship; and more.
Inspira also hosts themed pop-up events open to the public for children and their parents to increase their inclusion and community awareness.
Currently, its programs serve more than 200 children from South Shore communities south of the Alafia River and Parrish. About 80 percent of them are Latino and 20 percent of those are from migrant farm working families.
Services Inspira Tampa Bay offers are paid for by funds raised through its on-site Unique Ability Boutique; grants from the Interfaith Social Action Council of Sun City Center, Community Foundation Tampa Bay, private donations and a variety of communitywide fundraising events.
Inspira Tampa Bay is at 707 West Lake Drive, Wimauma. For more information, email info@inspiratampabay.org, visit its Facebook page or www.inspiratampabay.org or call 813-323-5783.
