TAMPA, Fla. -- The “I Believe in Miracles” banquet was a celebration where the guests of honor were families going through tough times. Mercedes Duarte spent a couple of weeks sleeping in her car.
“It was difficult, more for my son. It was hard,” she said.
She now has a place with her three kids but is struggling to make ends meet.
“Money was tight, very tight. And I'm trying to pay my bills on time so I won't have problems, and my kids can enjoy the things they need,” Duarte said.
But thanks to the donations from strangers, her kids got gifts this holiday season.
“It makes you feel that somebody does care for you, that somebody is here for you,” Duarte said.
They also got new shoes and makeovers.
“I love the event because look what they did to my hair,” Alisia Ramos, Duarte’s 13-year-old daughter, said. “I love how I look.”
And the woman bringing smiles to so many faces says she couldn't do it without the help of a higher power.
“How do I manage to pull this off?” Paulette Rolle-Alesnik said. “Just God, and then he brings all the wonderful people in place.”
She’s talking about the people who donate the entertainment, the shoes, the toys, the food and the motivational words to the banquet and concert at the University Area Community Development Corporation on 22nd Street in Tampa.
“My words to them today were to encourage them that they don't have to stay where they're at right now that they can get to the next level,” Steve Hopper, a motivational speaker, said. “And there are people in the community that will love them along the way and through that process.”
And if the mood in the room was any indication, many were feeling that love.
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