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Center Celebrates Diversity With Potluck, Variety Show

Photo from Brandon Family Support and Resource Center

Jesus Soler, an Ybor City native, at last year's Cultural Diversity Celebration at the Brandon Family Support and Resource Center, shared his personal accounts of life in Ybor City in the 1950s and 60s. His father was a cigar maker who worked in one of the factories in Ybor.

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By LAURA FRAZIER lfrazier@tampatrib.com

The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 25, 2009

BRANDON - Danielle Soler said her culinary contribution to a potluck dinner tomorrow night reflects her all-American heritage.

Soler will bring a platter of pigs in blankets to a party Thursday at the Brandon Family Support and Resource Center, but she said she can't wait to sample the Asian, Puerto Rican and Spanish foods others have signed up to share.

Soler is a support specialist at the family center in Kingsway Plaza on Windhorst Road, where the community is invited to a free Cultural Diversity Celebration from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday. The annual party will feature a pot-luck supper and variety show.

"Anyone can sign up for the variety show," Soler said. "We have people who are going to play the drums and the guitar, and one lady is going to dance."

The Brandon facility is one of four centers funded primarily by the Children's Board of Hillsborough County. Others are in Ruskin, Town 'N Country and North Tampa.

Brandon center manager Ligia Vigo and her staff coordinate a year-round calendar packed full of freebies. There are no eligibility or financial requirements for people to participate in the services, classes and events offered at the center - such as play groups for parents and babies, ballet classes for preschoolers, volunteer opportunities for teens, family counseling and parenting workshops.

"This is truly universal access," Vigo said. "We're here to grow healthier, happier, stronger families from newborns to adults."

For information about the celebration or other programs, call (813) 740-4634 or go to www.familysupporthc.org.

Reporter Laura Frazier can be reached at (813) 657-4523.

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