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♿ Miami-Dade Disability & Autism Newsletter 🧩

Good morning, my fellow Miamians 🦩

Coral Gables is a town that will send you a letter about the shade of white on your garage door. But once a year it digs a mud pit on Granada Boulevard and invites neurodiverse families to jump in for $10 a car. That's Saturday. Bring towels, bring a change of clothes, and leave the good towels at home.

The rest of the weekend runs the way late August should: a city turning 100 with carnival rides, a museum downtown that turns the volume down on Sunday morning, and a guided walk through Deering Estate looking for butterflies most Miamians have never heard of.

Have a Magic Miami weekend 🏖️

Victor Antunez

Real Estate Professional 🔑 Autism Dadvocate

PS. If buying or selling a home is on your mind, and you want to talk it through, text or call me at (305) 401-6224

PSS. Coppertone was born in Coconut Grove, in August, which makes this the sunscreen-iest month in the sunscreen-iest city. Poetic, really. More on that below.

🖇️ FREE BOOK DOWNLOADS​​

1. ​Future-Proofing Your Special Needs Child: Essential Legal, Financial, and Life Strategies for Florida Families​
2. ​​​Miami-Dade Special Needs Resource Directory​
3. ​The Ultimate Home Buying Guide For Families with Special Needs​

Happening This Weekend 🍿

FRIDAY

​Vizcaya Educator Appreciation, 6:30-9:30pm: Music, art making, and hands-on activities honoring Miami teachers. $15 adults, $5 kids 6-12, free under 6, FREE for educators. 3251 S Miami Ave

​Homestead Movies in the Park, Lilo & Stitch, 7-9:30pm, FREE: Bring lawn chairs and blankets. Losner Park, 104 N Krome Ave, Homestead

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SATURDAY

​Storytime Express Extravaganza: A Back-to-School Celebration, 10am-12pm: Storytime, bean bag toss, and crafts. Westchester Regional Library, 9445 Coral Way

​READy, Set, Go: Music & Movement, 10-11am: Storytime, songs, and movement with the University of Miami. Ages 0-5. Main Library, 101 W Flagler St

​FDLRS-South Resource Table, 10am-3pm: Family-friendly programs, training, support services, and school-family partnerships for families of children with disabilities. All ages. Coral Reef Branch Library, 9211 Coral Reef Dr

​Mud Day, 11am-2:30pm: Mud pools and dinosaur digs, with changing tents onsite. For neurodiverse families. All ages. $10 per vehicle. Ruth Bryan Owen Waterway Park, 3940 Granada Blvd

​Children of the Lotus Retreat, 11am-5pm, FREE: Art, storytelling, African drumming, and Afro-Caribbean dance. With youth sessions and parent wellness sessions. Miami Dade College North Campus, 11380 NW 27th Ave

​Miami Springs Centennial Day, 3-11pm: The city turns 100. Live music, carnival rides, food trucks, and family activities. Residents free with wristband, non-residents $40. The Circle, 100 Curtiss Parkway

​Butterfly Walk at Deering Estate, 11am-12pm: Guided walk through the Estate's habitats in search of nearly 40 butterfly species onsite. $18 per adult 15+, $10 per youth 4-14. Sign up at the Main Gate before the tour starts. Deering Estate, 16701 SW 72 Ave

​Inclusive Playdate at loanDepot park: Limited FREE family 4-packs to watch the Marlins take on the Washington Nationals. 501 Marlins Way

EVERY SATURDAY

​We Can Sail at Shake-A-Leg Miami, ​10am-2pm: Ages 6-22, inclusive sailing and activities. No experience needed. 2620 S Bayshore Dr

4th SATURDAY

​AMC Sensory-Friendly Screenings, 10am: At participating locations

SATURDAY & SUNDAY

​All The World's A Stage! Weekend at Miami Children's Museum: Improv, comedy, musical theatre, costume design, and puppetry workshops with the museum's Theater Troupe, plus the original production Anyways, Golf! 980 MacArthur Cswy

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SUNDAY

​Sensory Sunday at Museum of Miami, 10am-1pm: Explore the galleries plus a sensory-inclusive room and building-blocks area, for families of neurodiverse children, teens, and young adults. FREE with required registration. 101 W Flagler St

EVERY SUNDAY

​Social Program at Shake-A-Leg Miami, 10am-2pm: Water activities, socialization, and professional training for students and young adults with IDD. 2620 S Bayshore Dr

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​Now through September 27th: Pop Air - Art is Inflatable at Balloon Museum: Inflatable art you can walk through and touch. Mana Wynwood Convention Center, NW 23rd St

​Now through October 31st, Bugtopia at Zoo Miami: Giant animatronic insects, with bug-detective microscope stations where kids earn a junior entomologist certificate.

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Days & Times May Change 🔦 Confirm Before Going

📌 Do you know of inclusive, sensory-friendly, or family events in Miami-Dade that belong here? Hit reply and I'll add them ✏️

The Coconut Grove Pharmacist Who Gave The World Coppertone Sunscreen

Coconut Grove gave the world a lot of things, and one of them is on the shelf at every drugstore in Miami. His name was Benjamin Green, and he took the long way to inventing the stuff you rub on your skin at the beach: Slovakia to Cleveland in 1904, Cleveland to Coconut Grove in 1943, then World War II and Green, an airman himself, sunburned with everyone else under the Pacific sun and deciding somebody ought to do something about it, so he did. He mixed up red veterinary petrolatum, a thick salve that smelled terrible and worked anyway.

Then the war ended, but Green didn't stop inventing. He kept at it, except now he was standing at his own kitchen stove, cooking the formula down like a pot of sauce and testing every batch on his own bald head, adding cocoa butter and coconut oil until the stuff stopped smelling like a pit stop and started smelling like a day in paradise. The result: Coppertone sunscreen. So this weekend, when you're on the sand putting it on, know what's in your hand: a pharmacist's kitchen experiment that grew up to become the most recognizable product on Miami's beaches.

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