On Jan. 26, the Young Lawyers Section of the Jacksonville Bar Association teamed with the Department of Children and Families to sponsor its annual Holiday in January project. For those of you that are not familiar with the project, it focuses on children that were introduced into the foster care system during the Holiday season. Because of the timing, many of those children did not get to enjoy Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanzaa, or another Holiday celebration. The Holiday Project makes sure that those children don’t feel left out.
We use funds donated by The Florida Bar, local law firms and even some individuals to purchase gifts that address the children’s wants rather than their needs; real “presents” if you will. Thanks to the strong response from our local legal community this year, over 100 children had their Holiday wishes come true. Thirty-one children received bicycles — some of which were purchased at a generous discount from Target, and some of which were donated by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and refurbished by parishioners of Orange Park United Methodist Church — and every child left with a bag full of toys. The gift selections included Barbie dolls, Power Rangers, stuffed animals, CD players, footballs, puzzles, baseball gloves and much, much more. We also provided donuts, bagels and drinks for the children and their foster parents to enjoy, while Lisa Smith (together with several of her students) played Holiday songs that really brightened the day. Of course, Santa Claus made a special trip down from the North Pole to greet each child and spread a little belated Christmas cheer.
Unfortunately, DCF’s rules do not allow us to photograph the children so we cannot accurately share the joy that we saw on the children’s faces that day. It truly is a special event and I encourage you to participate next year.
I personally want to thank Ray Driver and Troy Smith who coordinated this event for the YLS board. They really did a “bang-up” job and did their utmost to bring a day of joy to a very deserving group of less fortunate kids. As the Holiday in January Project is truly a team effort, we’d also like to thank a number of individuals that volunteered their time and effort to make this year’s project such a success: Gail Killeen and Shauna Stokes from the Department of Children and Families who helped organize the project; Jack Salzer (a.k.a. Santa Claus); the Jacksonville Legal Assistants — Lenette Pinchback, Ann Allen, Sherri Anderson, Stephanie Carpenter, Allyson Clark, Linda Combs, Margaret Costa, Debora Gosselin, Donna Hoffman & her daughter Alicia, Debbie Joseph, Valentina LoGiurato, Sara McGraw, and Sharon Palmer — who helped with shopping, organized the display and presentation of the gifts and helped children pick out their gifts; Lisa Smith (and her students) who supplied the Holiday music; T.J. Fraser and Troy Smith who purchased and delivered the bicycles; Tammy Butler, Lisa Driver, Roland Wagner, Zachery Chanthavong and D.C. Hackney who also helped with the shopping, organized the gifts and made sure all of the kids enjoy the event; and Debbie Lee-Clark who donated gifts for the project.
Finally, the project could not have occurred - much less been a success — without financial support from: Akerman Senterfitt; Taylor, Day & Currie; McGuireWoods; Rogers Towers; Harris, Guidi; Spohrer Wilner Maxwell & Matthews; Hedrick Dewberry Regan & Durant; Farah & Farah; Liles, Gavin & Constantino; Smith Hulsey & Busey; Holland & Knight; Victoria Donato; Pappas Metcalf Jenks & Miller; LeBoeuf, Lamb; The Bedell Firm; Susan Erdelyi; Stephen Gallaher; Sonya Hoener; Eugene G. Peek III; and Coffman, Coleman. We tried to say thanks to everyone, but if we missed you, please accept our sincerest apologies.