An educational gala will return next month for the fifth year, after taking two years off due to the pandemic, to raise scholarship dollars for Haitian heritage students.

The 5th annual Haitian Heritage Educational Scholarship Gala will be held from 6 to 9:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 24, with a cocktail reception from 5-6 p.m., at Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre, 1380 Colonial Blvd. Tickets are $75 in advance for adults and $40 for children 13 years old and younger.

“It looks like it will be a sold out event,” Haitian-American Community Coalition of SWFL President Beatrice Jacquet-Castor said. “We are halfway sold out. It’s looking really good.”

Tickets can be purchased through Eventbrite at https://bit.ly/3UaUNpd.

“We are inviting people to come out and support this great cause,” she said, adding that the event will feature Haitian music, dancing, a buffet dinner and a silent auction. “We are super excited.”

The event will feature well-known Haitian singer Rutshelle Guillaume, as well as past scholarship recipients, who will speak during the event. Also, during the gala, the coalition will honor seven organizations that share the same vision and mission of the Haitian-American Coalition of SWFL.

The gala means a lot to Jacquet-Castor.

“We get to help young Haitian heritage students to get scholarships to go on to college. I graduated from Fort Myers High in ’96. We did not have scholarships that geared towards Haitian heritage students. One of my motivations when I became a co-founder of this organization was I wanted to do something different. I wanted to make scholarships available to Haitian heritage students,” she said, as students feel like they have something that belongs to them, which is equal to every other college student.

To date, the coalition has raised more than $19,000 in scholarships for Lee county graduating senior students of Haitian heritage.

“If COVID did not hit it would have been our seventh year gala. We are looking so forward to having it and reconnecting with the community and have everyone support this cause,” Jacquet-Castor said. “We are excited about this upcoming gala and showcase to everybody what we have done for the past two years that we didn’t have the gala.”

The community has the opportunity to further support scholarships by purchasing ads for the gala’s souvenir booklets, which has a deadline of Sept. 24. Individuals can purchase a full page on the back of the booklets for $375; full page for $200; a quarter page for $100; half page for $150 and business card for $50. Camera ready ads can be emailed to HACCSWFL@outlook.com.

There are also sponsorship tables available. The platinum sponsor is $3,000; gold sponsor is $1,500 and silver sponsor is $1,000.

“We are looking for sponsorships (because) putting on the event is very expensive to be able to raise scholarship funds. We want to increase our scholarship funds this year. We are asking the community to help by buying sponsorships and tickets,” she said.

The Haitian-American Community Coalition of SWFL formed in 2015 as an advocate for the Haitian heritage community through social justice and human rights, as there are more than 25,000 Haitian-Americans who reside in Lee County. A top priority of the coalition is education.

“We enjoy every year,” she said of providing scholarships to students. “It melts our hearts. Wonderful tears come out.”

Once Scholarship Chair Betsy Vaughn contacts the recipients, the coalition receives voice messages and videos of thank yous.

“We are seeing the labor of our fruits. The gala means a lot to us,” Jacquet-Castor said.

For more information, visit haitianamericanccf.org.