This past Sunday, we celebrated the 4th edition of our Inclusive Family Fun Day, and as organizers, we are left with a mix of emotions that can sometimes feel overwhelming. Witnessing the transformation of Key Biscayne from what it was about six years ago to what it is today feels like watching night turn into day.
Because, in our view, true inclusion doesn’t come only from laws or regulations, it comes from a change in perspective and in the heart. It’s about empathy. Not because people don’t want to help, but often because they don’t know how, or even how to begin to see it.
What’s beautiful about events like Sunday’s is that worlds come together.
Local government, therapists, police, fire rescue, commissioners, senators, all come together to celebrate with families, children, and teenagers who, for one day, are the protagonists. Far from being invisible, they are at the center of it all.
It’s a day when, for the first time, some have two or three friends to dance with, to go on rides, to slide down together, or to get their faces painted. A day when an entire neurotypical community wants to share, laugh, and dance with the neurodiverse. Nearly 3,000 people united in a celebration of love and inclusion.
But what not everyone sees is where the real change happens. It’s not only the children and teens with special needs who benefit. In many ways, it’s the nearly 200 volunteers, young people from different high schools across Miami, who come to earn community service hours by playing or simply connecting with someone very different from what they know, someone they don’t usually encounter in their daily lives.
The gratitude on their faces as they leave is, for us, the greatest and only reward we could ask for. The messages they send later reflect something deeper—a shift in mindset. This isn’t just volunteering that involves setting up chairs and tables. This is a change of heart.
At last year’s fair, two young volunteers approached us with an idea. As rugby players, they wanted to create an inclusive team. Today, Rugby4All has more than 10 participants and meets every week. This year, another young girl came up to us wanting to do the same, but with hockey. One volunteer started an inclusive tennis clinic, and another is planning to create a golf school.
And yes, it is these young people who are spreading an epidemic… but an epidemic of love.
Because let’s be honest, they are not required to do this. They don’t have children, nor necessarily a relative with a disability. No one is forcing them. They simply act out of empathy and generosity. They set aside their own plans to take on this new “job,” driven purely by love.
Another example is a Chilean family, the Olivares Lara family, who voluntarily spend five hours at the event making balloon animals. The first years must have been tiring, we can’t even imagine the exhaustion this year after creating hundreds of them. Their teenage daughters were right next to them, painting children’s faces. None of them have to do this. No one is asking them to. They are simply another family that has caught the epidemic.
Others infected include our food providers, thank you to Novecento, Domino’s Pizza, La Paleta, and Agua Miel, who didn’t hesitate to create affordable menus to provide snacks for our 200 volunteers. Thank you again.
Key Biscayne may not fully realize it yet, but the infection is spreading. You can see it clearly within the Village administration and the Community Center, starting from the Manager, Steve Williamson, and extending throughout the entire team… they’re all infected.
Thank you to everyone, those “infected,” the advocates, and our local government and authorities, for helping spread this epidemic. We truly hope none of you ever recover.
Barbara Diaz
Laura Teran
Co-Founders of It Takes a Village, Key Biscayne