Family Promise of Martin County will bring its annual Bed Races back to Sailfish Ballpark in Stuart on Saturday, combining a free community event with efforts to help local families with children facing homelessness. The races are scheduled for 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the ballpark, 600 SE Flagler Ave. Paige Cortes, the organization’s director of operations, said spectators can attend for free. “So we are ready for fun too, and you can join us in the race to end childhood homelessness,” Cortes said.
Teams turn beds into racing machines, with runners pushing a rider toward the finish line. The event features costumes, competition and laughs, while giving Martin County residents an opportunity to learn about family homelessness and the work to help parents and children regain stable housing. Beyond the contest to see which team can push its bed across the finish line fastest, the races have a literal connection to Family Promise’s mission: Each bed represents something every family needs at the end of the day, a safe place to sleep.
Madeleine Bozone Greenwood, executive director of Family Promise of Martin County, said the organization works to prevent and end family homelessness locally. Its work includes homelessness prevention, shelter, transitional housing and services designed to help families find stable housing while keeping parents and children together. “We serve parents with children that are here in Martin County,” Greenwood said. “We provide shelter, transitional housing. A path to return to home ownership or their own rental housing.”
Pastor Chad Fair, board chair of Family Promise of Martin County, said homelessness affects working families, including people whose jobs involve helping local children and families. He said that reality does not always match people’s expectations about who experiences homelessness. “We kind of think that it hits just those people we see on the street corner, but it’s families, it’s nurses, it’s school teachers, it’s people that are integral in our community and do the work with our kids, with our families, and they’re experiencing homelessness,” Fair said. Saturday’s event connects residents with that sometimes largely invisible issue while highlighting efforts to help families secure stable housing.