Interior designer Stephen Gorwitz wears his heart on this shirt during his shopping spree at Embrace Girls Target.
Embrace Girls student reflects on targeted shopping spree choices as seen by Stephen J.
Stephen J serves the homeless at the Embrace Thanksgiving fete.
Annual holiday festivities included a Target Shopping Tour, a tour, and lunch at the Miami Children’s Museum.
– Embrace Girls founder and CEO Velma Lawrence
MIAMI, Florida, USA, Dec 24, 2021 / EINPresswire.com/ – It’s been one year to the day since Stephen Gorwitz, President and CEO of luxury design firm Interiors by Steven G, was introduced to Velma Lawrence and Embrace Girls’ Foundation.
The designer was looking for a local group to support. A colleague, Mette Padron, director of local public relations for ABC News, believes the Embrace Girls were a natural fit, made the introduction and suggested that Gurowitz support the annual Christmas party.
She was right.
By the time the 2020 party ended, Gorwitz pledged to support the group in any way possible.
He later said, “We decided to embrace the Embrace Girls because we love what these kids stand for, and the fact that many of them have overcome tremendous adversity in their lives.” “The things we take for granted in our lives mean a lot to other people who don’t have those things.”
A year later, Gorowitz was more than just a man of his word.
Over the past 12 months, he has:
• Sponsoring a Valentine’s Day outing, surprise the girls with custom bikes, knee pads and helmets.
• Sponsor a series of concerts “Intimate Evenings With” cuddle at the casino at Dania Beach. Soul singer Jeffrey Osborne (June), actors and gospel music icons David and Tamila Mann (August), and R&B crooner Gerald Alston and Manhattans with singer and actress Regina Belle (December) both sold out weeks before the shows and helped make “Intimate Evening With” performances is a must-see event for music lovers in South Florida.
• Serving food on the occasion of the Thanksgiving embrace which he funded to feed the homeless.
• Visit Embrace schools and tour the neighborhoods in which they live.
• He recruited friends to join him in support of the Embrace Girls, including millionaire Miami developer Joseph Melton, who and his wife Alexandra attended the Embrace Girls’ signature tea parties and hosted a tour of one of their office buildings that included a special film screening. Miltons also made recurring donations of children’s and adult clothing, furniture, toys, and shoes.
• Gurowitz’s support has allowed Embrace Girls to expand its services across Miami-Dade counties, from Dania Beach to Homestead, offering weekly during and after school programs to hundreds of students.
“Mr. G is the gift that keeps on giving,” said Mr. Lawrence. “His generosity extends far beyond criticism. The time he dedicates to the girls and the attention he shows to their general well-being is truly invaluable.
“His support has enabled us to expand the program and services to schools in need as well as implement community initiatives that support the homeless and families in crisis.”
This includes Jesse J. McCurry Elementary School in Miami, where Principal Trillani Parrish Gay has asked second-grade major Tania Rina to head up the Embrace Girls group.
“My principal said she had an amazing program that she wanted me to lead at school,” Rina said. “I was thrilled to find out about Embrace, because last summer I watched the show on Instagram and saw their tea party. For the principal to come knocking on my door and tell me about it, that says it was meant to be.
“I fell in love with her.”
Rina, who not only grew up and still lives in Miami’s Liberty City neighborhood but also attended Macri (then Little River Elementary School) as a child, said she saw the difference Embrace programs made in 14 girls in Macri — including her. Daughter Jasmine Smith, Macri’s fifth grader.
“My students absolutely love cuddling,” Rina said. “You can see it in their faces, in the things they do, in the way they carry themselves. They needed this. I have students and parents asking all the time if they or their children can join Embrace.”
The Embrace Girls Foundation Inc. Founded in 2000, a non-profit that provides high-end, girl-focused programs to hundreds of girls in many public and private elementary and middle schools in Miami/Dade and Broward counties.
Lawrence, knows the challenging girls up close. I also grew up in Liberty City and founded Embrace “to help young girls become the women they chose to be by giving them encouragement and opportunities that I didn’t have or even knew existed growing up.”
Interiors by Steven G has more than 80 employees and offices in Miami, Miami Beach, and New York City. Pompano Beach’s 110,000 square foot showroom features Italian and Parisian designers. The company’s clients included international corporations, hotels, former Super Bowl winner Warren Sapp and boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Gurowitz and his in-house team, Maria, Sierra, Greta, and Linda, celebrated the anniversary of the cuddle by taking more than 50 Embrace Girls on a Christmas shopping spree to a Target department store.
“We got a wish list from every kid, so not only did they pick what they wanted, but they also got bags full of things from their wish list,” Gorowitz said.
The shopping spree was followed by a theater tour of the Miami Children’s Museum, lunch and a visit to Santa Claus.
“At the end of the day, I was shocked by a bunch of smiling kids,” Gorowitz said. “How do you set a price on it?”
Gorwitz paid tribute to Lawrence and the Embrace Girls staff, many of whom are alumni of the program.
“To see Velma Lawrence, who has dedicated twenty years of her life to this wonderful organization and now has programs in schools from Homestead to Dania Beach, well, I am honored to stand in full swing with her to make this happen,” he said. “If I was doing this for as long as you do, I’d take medicine.”
Gurowitz said, while he’s happy to help Embrace grow, he “embraces my passion. I’ve been blessed. I’m not a godly person, but I believe God has a plan, and I’m honored to follow that plan.”
“Many people are talking, but there are few who go down that path.
“I am walking.”
Velma Lawrence
Embrace Girls Foundation Inc.
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Embrace Girls Feed the Homeless in Miami for Thanksgiving
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