Central Florida Dreamplex celebrates Christmas in July with festive fundraiser

Central Florida Dreamplex is hosting a Christmas in July event featuring holiday fun, sweet treats, and a fundraiser to support people of all abilities on Wednesday, July 15, from 6-8 p.m. at The Friendship Place in Clermont.

The holiday spirit is showing up early this year. *** local nonprofit is celebrating Christmas in July with holiday fun, sweet treats, and *** fundraiser that’s really making *** difference for people of all abilities. And joining me now Central Florida Dreamplex CEO Cameron Gomez Cameron Gomes, it’s so good to see you Cameron as always and Brianna Rudolph, the director of the Friendship Place and Friendly Grounds cafe. Welcome both of you. Thank you so much for having us. Absolutely thanks so much for coming on. OK, so Cameron, first off, just for our friends watching this morning and they don’t know about. The Dreamplex, fill us in. Yeah, so the Central Florida Dreamplex is *** program that provides opportunity and inclusion for all persons regardless of ability in sport, recreation, therapy, and employment opportunities. So we do all sorts of therapy services, recreational adaptive sports programs. We have the Friendship Places, our adult day program. We have *** pre-K all the way up to 12th grade school. So all sorts of things, one stop shop really for individuals with disabilities and their families. OK, excellent. It really is wonderful, and, you know, Cameron, you’re such *** wonderful person. I’ve known him for so long and Brianna, you run the Friendship place, correct? I do, yes, OK. And so, and same thing, I know that it’s all part of it, but just for our viewers, tell us, tell us, tell them what that’s all about. Yeah, so the Friendship Place is our adult day program, so we service, um, individuals who are 22 and older with different types of developmental disabilities, um, and we do *** lot of things to, you know, keep them kind of in that continuum of care after they age out of the typical school system. So, um, life skills classes, um, we have our vocational program. Now, which, um, our Friendly Grounds cafe where the clients like run and get to learn how to do like money management skills, um, going out into the community, arts and crafts, life skills, um, just to keep them as engaged and busy as possible. Absolutely excellent. OK, I just wanna give everyone at home an idea of what you guys do because it’s so special. OK, so tell us, it’s Christmas in July. What, what does that mean? What are we doing, guys? So we are having *** fundraiser, um, next week. So *** lot of our clients made, um, different like craft items. For us to sell and all of those proceeds will go back to the program and you’ve got some with you. I do have *** couple of things to show, uh, just some of the many things that we’ll be having. So *** couple of the things that they worked on, they did handmade Christmas cards, um, so yes, this was done by one of our clients who’s one of our resident artists as we like to call him over there at the Friendship Place. So we have *** couple of that. We get some beach themed Christmas ornaments to celebrate that kind of Christmas in July, some other ornaments as well, um, but there will be other things. There too for sale and we’re also having some other items. We’re going to have *** bake sale. We’re going to have ice cream that we’re serving as well and then some different activities that will be going on during the event too. OK, perfect. And so when is the event? What day, location, all that good stuff. So it’s next Wednesday, the 15th, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Friendship Place in Claremont. We’ll also be doing *** golf ball drop so anyone anywhere can participate in this and support our program. You don’t have to be present to win. So we’ll be dropping over 1000 golf balls. From the top of the engine of *** Claremont Fire Department truck, so they’re $10 *** golf ball. You can win *** $1000 cash prize. So anyone’s willing, anyone’s able to do that through our website. Again, if you’re on site for the for the event, you can obviously watch the golf ball drop. We’ll also be doing it on Facebook Live as well through our Facebook page. So that can be the entries can be purchased at CFLDreamplex.com. Find our events page and the golf ball drop and Love to have everyone’s support. I was going to say, why would you encourage our viewers to get involved in this? and how does it benefit everyone? Obviously the Dreamplex at the Friendship Place, this is *** big deal. Yeah, absolutely. Many of our programs are not revenue producing, and so we have to do these types of fundraisers to help us continue our daily operations. So their support means everything to us and everything to the families that we serve. We serve hundreds and really thousands of families every year through our various programs. So yes, whether it’s attending the event in person, if you’re local and would like to do that. Or if you’re not able to make it that night, you can still support through the golf ball drop. Excellent. All right, Cameron, and I know you already mentioned the website, but for folks watching, if they want to get involved, whether it’s time, money, whatever they can do, where should they go to reach out to CFL Dreamplex.com is our website. We’re also on Instagram and Facebook and all the different social medias at CFL Dreamplex. Awesome. And just *** little fun. I, I, you guys do such great work. I’m honored to host some of your events and just be *** part of it. So I enjoy going along for the ride. So if you’re looking to get involved, this is *** great place to do so for sure.

Updated: 6:14 AM EDT Jul 13, 2026

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Central Florida Dreamplex celebrates Christmas in July with festive fundraiser

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