Fourth Annual Friends & Family Day Honors The Memory of Commissioner Carlton B. Moore

Oct. 7 Event in Osswald Park will feature Live Music, Food Trucks, Games, Marketplace, Kids’ Zone

Submitted by Rebecca Jones

      FORT LAUDEDALE — Nearly nine years after his passing, former Fort Lauderdale City Commissioner Carlton B. Moore remains in the hearts and minds of family and friends who seek to carry on his legacy of love and support for the community. On Saturday, Oct. 7, they will honor his memory with a special event filled with music, games, and more at Osswald Park, 2220 NW 21st Avenue in Fort Lauderdale.

The Fourth Annual Carlton B. Moore Friends & Family Day will be held from 3 to 8 p.m. It will feature music by Miami Brown, a popular funk and R&B band, a bid whist tournament, a 3-point basketball contest, food trucks, a kids’ zone, a vendors’ marketplace, and more.

“This event is all about bringing the community together to celebrate the bonds of family and friendship through the lens of my father’s legacy,” said Forrest Moore, president of the Carlton B. Moore Freedom Foundation (CBMFF) and the youngest of the commissioner’s two sons. “We have activities and entertainment for every age, and we’re looking forward to another great event.”

First held in 2019, this year’s event is sponsored by the City of Fort Lauderdale Vice Mayor Beasley-Pittman, Samuel F. Morrison Community Impact Fund of the Community Foundation of Broward, the Westside Gazette, and Pamela Adams.

It is organized each year by the CBMFF in memory of Moore, who served on the Fort Lauderdale City Commission for more than 20 years and was a past president of the Fort Lauderdale branch of the NAACP. He died at age 60 on April 2, 2014, from the complications of a stroke he suffered on Christmas Day, 2013.

The event will include the presentation of the Carlton B. Moore Community Service Award, which was inaugurated in 2022 and presented posthumously to Beauregard Cummings. This year’s recipient is Art Kennedy, who served for many years as chief of staff for the late Congressman Alcee Hastings and is a former educator and administrator in the Broward County School District.

“Through his work in the political realm and education, Mr. Kennedy has been a friend and a pillar of our community,” Moore said. “We believe he embodies the values and the commitment to social justice and community service that defined my father’s career as a civil rights activist and public servant.”

Moore’s love of community and his devotion to service was inspired in part by his mother, the late Ada B. Moore, who for decades was a teacher, supervisor, and “second mother” to children to children at Sunland Park, now known as Carter Park. Ada Moore passed away shortly after the inaugural Friends & Family Day, which she was proud to help organize in memory of her son.

“We were so happy that my grandmother was part of our first Friends & Family Day celebration,” Moore said. “She gave so much of herself to our community and, her final, lasting gift was to make sure that we continued the outreach that she instilled in my father and all of us who are now carrying the torch.”

Established nine years ago, the CBMFF is dedicated to helping inmates who may have been treated unfairly because of mandatory minimum sentencing and providing college scholarships to Broward County students. The Foundation has presented $45,000 in scholarships to deserving high school graduates.

“In an age when there is so much misinformation, education is even more critical to the success of our children and our community,” Moore said. “We are very proud of our scholarship recipients. They are our future leaders, and we look forward to seeing them continue my father’s legacy of activism and service.”

For more information, contact the Foundation at (954) 328-7848 or cbmffoundation@gmail.com.

About the Carlton B. Moore Freedom Foundation Inc.

    The Carlton B. Moore Freedom Foundation, Inc., a 501c (3) charity, was established in 2014 to honor the memory of former Fort Lauderdale Commissioner Carlton Moore by helping those who have been treated unfairly because of mandatory minimum sentencing and by awarding scholarships to students in the Fort Lauderdale community.