Meet the The Perez Family

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Hello! We are The Perez’s! Actually, these days our families go by the last names Hew and Prentiss, but the four of us – Beverly Hew, Jonathan Hew, Valerie Prentiss, and Evan Prentiss – are connected because there first was a strong and sweet sisterhood between Bev and Val, who are known to many as “The Perez Sisters”.

 

Beverly and Jonathan met while cheering at the University of Miami! The have been stunting their way through life ever since their college years. They now have two beautiful children Madison and Maddox.

 

Evan and Valerie were brought together through their careers in healthcare. Evan, a firefighter, and Valerie, a pediatric nurse practitioner, met when Evan served as an instructor in a CPR class that Valerie had to take as a new nurse. They later married and have since gone on to have two daughters, Vera and Emerson.

 

The four of us grew up in Miami and have called it “home” for many years. Like so many who grew up in the hustle and bustle of South Florida, the quarantine of spring/summer 2020 forced us to slow down and have quality time with our families. With that came a lot of time spent in the great outdoors exploring our yards together in new ways, so no one was surprised when Evan – the eternal “why buy it, when we can build it?” guy – decided to build a lovely play fort for the kids to play in outside with all the newly found free time!

 

Since building that initial little fort on a whim, we have had the opportunity to share the same joy we found in our fort with a few other local families. Eventually Beverly, who cheered with Kristin at the University of Miami, connected us to the founders of Firefly Forts – Mike and Kristin Scaglione. She had been following their awesome story which resonated with all of us in a powerful way. Upon meeting Mike and Kristin, we knew we wanted to join them on their mission by bringing Firefly Forts to South Florida. We are excited to create a space between the palm trees where your child or the child at heart can slow it down and experience the charm, magic, and adventure of Firefly forts!