Miami-Dade Parks to host a naming ceremony for a future neighborhood park in south Miami-Dade

On Friday, July 21st at 10 a.m., Miami-Dade County District 8 Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins and Miami-Dade County Parks Director Maria I. Nardi will gather with community members for the naming of a future neighborhood park in Homestead. The currently undeveloped park will be named “Joe and Colleen Griffin Park” for the late Joseph “Joe” and Colleen Griffin, long-beloved residents, and growers-advocates for the tropical fruit-growing community of the Redlands of south Miami-Dade. The park naming is the result of a resolution spearheaded by Commissioner Cohen Higgins and adopted by the Miami-Dade County Board of County Commissioners.  

Joe was a World War II veteran and a pioneer farmer of the Redlands, where he grew avocados and mangos, and was active in the Boy Scouts as an Assistant Scout Master for Boy Scout Troop 69. Colleen was an active member of the Mango Forum and served on the Tropical Fruit Growers of South Florida’s Board of Directors for many years, was board member and president of the Redland Citizens Association, a member of the Tropical Fruit and Vegetable Society, and chaired the Zoning Appeals Board. Together they lent their expertise and leadership to help increase public interest in the cultivation and use of tropical fruit and vegetables in the South Florida community.  

The event also celebrates the Parks Department’s plans to develop the five acre site as a future neighborhood park that will feature an enhanced landscape with native plantings, designed to encourage physical activity and spending time outdoors, and foster a sense of place and community.