Temple Terrace United Methodist Church back to school donation table. Photo by Leah Burdick

At the Temple Terrace United Methodist Church, community organizations and faith communities gathered together to help 160 refugees.

At the 8th annual Interfaith Welcome for Refugees event there were free haircuts, school supplies, live music, a gift card give away and more.

Sally Campbell-Evans is a pastor at Hyde Park United Methodist Church and she helped plan the event.

“This year, there has been a tough year a lot of funding sources have changes with 2025. This community is in more need than they have in the past,” Campbell-Evans said.

The Christian, Jewish and Muslims communities came together with the Tampa Bay Refugee Task Force to help.

Radiant Hands and the Tampa Bay Refugee Task Force helped reach and contact those who attended the event.

“The faith community stands in support of immigrants and refugees. All of our faith traditions talk about welcoming the stranger and caring for the refugees because we were once refugees. Strangers in a strange land ourselves,” Campbell-Evans said.

She said there was some fear about hosting the event, but she wanted everyone to feel welcome and that is why they did not want to publicize the event beforehand.

Dima Walters is a coordinator for the CARIBE Refugee Program with Hillsborough County Schools Adult and Community Education, and they came to the interfaith event to let participants register for classes.

Walters said the program offers English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), Adult Basic Education (ABE), General Education Development (GED), high school completion and provides referrals to technical colleges in Hillsborough County classes, all free of charge.

She said starting August 4, all locations will be accepting new refugees.

This was one of multiple stands that offered help or supplies for the attendees of the event.

The most popular station for the children was the Palm Harbor Library table. Here, they were allowed to grab any free book they liked, leading to a number of smiling faces.