by Monica Chamness
Staff Writer
Christmas may be over for everyone else, but for the Young Lawyers Section of The Jacksonville Bar Association, there are still some presents under the tree.
Each year, members of JBA’s YLS Board of Governors are selected to participate in the Holiday in January project. The idea is to capture those less fortunate children that may have been forgotten over the holidays.
“We organize the event for all the foster kids who were placed right around Christmas and didn’t get any presents,” said Troy Smith, co-chair of the project. “We don’t forget about the older kids either.”
The project, which has been around for several years, is something a board member can volunteer to chair.
“We need about 30 volunteers this year,” said Cheryl Worman, the project’s other co-chair and an attorney at Rogers, Towers, Bailey, Jones & Gay.
Designed to make the holidays merrier for children who are orphaned or separated from their natural parents through the legal system, it emphasizes “wish list” items over essentials. Even if the lawyers involved don’t have children of their own, by the end of the project they know what the little ones like.
“Barbie is popular with the girls,” said Worman. “The boys really like sporting goods like basketballs. We also try to reserve things like headsets for them.”
For the necessities, the Young Lawyers Back to School Jubilee in August handles need-based items such as school supplies to prepare foster children for the upcoming academic year.
Encompassing disadvantaged children from infancy to age 17, the Holiday in January project begins in November by sending solicitation letters to various law firms and individual attorneys. Invitations are then sent by the Department of Children and Families to the children, inviting them to the party.
“We usually try to have it towards the end of January but this year, we’re having it on Feb. 1,” said Smith.
Toys range from stuffed animals to reworked bicycles donated by the sheriff’s office. The bicycles are raffled to the children at the event.
“We try to have enough bikes to give one to every kid,” said Smith. “Sometimes the sheriff’s office will donate bikes that were stolen and we fix them up.”
Five board members volunteer to buy gifts with the fundraising dollars. Santa’s list is generated by the Department of Children and Families according to the children’s desires and supplied to the attorneys. Buyers know before hand the ages and gender of the children. Each is assigned 20 to 25 children to shop for. When Feb. 1 arrives, the children are allowed to select their favorite unwrapped gift.
“A truckload of presents were donated to give to the kids,” said Smith. “When the kids get there, they usually just stand in disbelief. A lot of times a member of the bar will walk with them to help them pick out presents.”