Tampa Heights: VIPs tour shelter's new playground, classrooms
By ELISABETH DYER
Published October 17, 2003
Children staying at Metropolitan Ministries' homeless shelter swarmed Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio after she cut the ribbon for the shelter's new playground on Florida Avenue last week.
The 200-by-140-foot playground, completed in September, has slides and an adjacent paved area for skating, skateboarding and playing basketball.
Community leaders, Metropolitan employees and volunteers at the Oct. 8 grand opening toured the onsite school, which added two classrooms, a resource room and library. Students served lemonade.
The school, which serves kindergarteners through eighth-graders whose families live in the shelter, opened in 1998 to address the unique needs of homeless children who often have poor attendance and more health problems than other children.
The playground, classrooms and library were built with private donations and funds from the school district. About 80 children live at Metropolitan Ministries with their families.
