The Annual Friends of the Poor® Walk/Run, to benefit those in need and living in poverty in South Florida, is held at Tropical Park. This awesome yearly event is organized by the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul (SVdP) in South Florida as a fun-filled way for your family members, friends, co-workers, co-students, company peers to come together in support of those in need. Our Walk/Run allows all of us “South Florida Community Members” from all walks of life across the country to participate in a unique event to raise awareness of the challenges faced by our locals’ needful and to raise significant funds for use in SVdP’s direct service to those in need. In average, SVdP gives back to the community more than 98% of the resources it collects. This is thanks to the hard work of our volunteering Vincentians.

All funds raised locally are used locally.  The Friends of the Poor® Walk/Run began as a national program with the purpose of providing local SVdP Conferences and Councils the additional funds to help support their special works projects.  In South Florida today that philosophy continues.   Conferences and Councils use the funds from this event to help local people living in poverty or requiring a helping hand to assist them solving a particular situation in life.

In honor of the 400th anniversary of our Vincentian Charism, we organized this year’s Friends of the Poor Walk/Run as an Archdiocese-wide event that will include all the Catholic schools in South Florida, the Young and Young Adult Ministry of the Archdiocese of Miami and Corporate sponsors that care about the community are in.  This annual Walk/Run usually takes place on the last Saturday, in March, at Tropical Park (Miami), Shelter 12 and it is organized as a 5K event . Mark your Calendars. Get into shape to help those in need!

During the last years South Florida has been hit with at least several major natural disasters and COVID-19. SVdP has not been asleep at the wheel: With the hard work of 1,000+ members serving the poor and needy; we helped more than 200,000 families; our volunteers embarked in more than 22,000 visits, calls and contacts (excluding our food bank contacts); we collectively provided more than $8M of financial support, goods, and services to our community; our members volunteered more than 150,000 hours of generous work and Vincentians drove the equivalent of 6 3/4 times around the world (169,160 miles) to serve the needy. With your help, we can do much more. We would like to ask Your Family, Company, Organization, School and Youth group to join your South Florida SVdP Conferences and create a team that participate in our Friends of the Poor® Walk/Run.

This event is a fun-filled way  to come together in support of the community members that may be in need, hungry or are simply in a poor condition.  Our participants enhance their understanding of our Gospel values rooted in the person of Jesus Christ and value the importance of being active in providing service to benefit the our community.

For Vincentians, the key aspects of St. Vincent’s spirituality are:

  • To love God, our Father, with the sweat of our brow and the strength of our arms;
  • To see Christ in the poor and the poor in Christ;
  • To share the compassionate and liberating love of Christ the Evangelizer and Servant of the poor;
  • To heed the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

How can you get started?

You can help in multiple ways (even becoming a volunteer for the event). Create an event team bringing together members of your family, company, school or youth group team, and encouraging people to register to walk.

Please help us to make a difference for those living in poverty or in-need, please invite and bring your school students, parents, family, co-workers, company members to participate in the SVdP South Miami Friends of the Poor® Walk/Run.

Please honor us with your support by participating in this event.  We welcome your assistance in helping us creating awareness as our Saint John Paul II said in his Homily at Sunday Mass on World Youth Day 1993 in Denver Colorado “The Church needs your energies, your enthusiasm, your ideals, in order to make the Gospel of life penetrate the fabric of society, transforming people’s hearts and the structures of society in order to create a civilization of true justice and love.”

This is a fundraising event for our St Vincent de Paul parish conferences.

If you have questions about getting your school involved, please contact your us at:

The Society of Saint Vincent de Paul (SVdP),
a 501(C)(3) Public Charity Organization,
Miami-Dade District,
The Friends of the Poor® Walk/Run, Corporate Sponsorships,
Attn: Eduardo M Santaella, 786-329-2222, esantaella@4svdp.org

God Bless You ….