For the first time in the Key Biscayne Fourth of July Parade’s 67-year history, the village expanded its celebration with a sensory-friendly fireworks viewing area and an ADA parade tent.
Residents with special needs, and their families, gathered in the 12th-floor Observation Room at the Mar Azul condominium on Grapetree Drive to enjoy the nearly half-hour offshore fireworks display while wearing noise-canceling headphones.
The sensory-friendly viewing area was made possible through a partnership among the Village of Key Biscayne’s Disability Advisory Board, the Mar Azul Condominium Association and its President Guillermo Garcia-Lay and the nonprofit It Takes a Village, which provided the headphones.
Disability Advisory Board member Sonia Keif called the initiative a “great success” and said she hopes “to see it again in the future.”