MIAMI (WSVN) - As South Florida tries to get past the pandemic and make steps toward normalcy, City of Miami Mayor Francis Suarez hosted another gift card giveaway for residents ahead of the holiday season.
Miami residents gathered outside the third giveaway at Juan Pablo Duarte Park, located at 1776 NW 28th St., early Tuesday morning.
7News cameras captured several hundred people lined up outside the park, waiting to receive one of the 500 gift cards that will be distributed.
“I brought my blanket, a couple pillows, I stretched out, just waiting,” said Ronald Micucci. “I’m a veteran, so it’s been really hard, but we all go through it. Everyone goes through the same thing.”
Willie May said she tried to receive a gift card twice before.
“Like they say, three strikes, you’re out,” she said. “I’m in.”
There are two lines which, park officials said, serve different purposes.
One line is the first-come, first-served line.
The woman at the front of that line said she had been in line since 10 p.m., Monday.
Those in the second line said they were also there from Monday night, and they spoke with a commissioner who collected their forms and guaranteed them a spot in line.
Organizers said they will be honoring both lines. Those in the first-come, first-served line will each receive one of 500 gift cards, and extra gift cards will be sourced for those who were promised a spot in line.
One woman said she is still confused because she was at the park on Monday and there was a woman taking names on a piece of paper.
“I don’t know. I just came to this gate right here, and it was a little line,” she said. “She had a piece of paper. She was taking their names and she said, ’89 is your number.’ She said, ‘Take a picture with your phone,’ so that’s what people were doing. I don’t know what happened. I come here, a line over here and a line over there, so I don’t know what’s going on.”
“People that were lined up before 6 o’clock last night to receive cards opening up at 8 in the morning, you can imagine that,” said District 1 Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla. “We have a curfew in place. At 12 o’clock, I asked my staff to come over and collect names, so we collected 224 people.”
Suarez said seeing these lines is tragic, and he’s hoping to do more.
“We asked Miami-Dade County, we continue to ask Miami-Dade County, ‘Please, give us more resources in the cities,'” he said.
There was initially just over $3.5 million allocated to the gift card distribution program. On Thursday, city leaders added an additional $2 million.
Recipients must be Miami residents and must prove that they have faced financial hardship due to the pandemic.
A total of five gift card giveaways are scheduled for the month of December.
Copyright 2024 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.