by Kent Jennings Brockwell
Staff Writer
A lot of lawyers spend their lunch breaks reading law suits and state codes while they eat but a few local attorneys will begin reading something a little lighter during their lunch hour this week - children’s books.
Several members of the Jacksonville Bankruptcy Bar Association signed up to become volunteer readers for the Mayor’s RALLY Jacksonville literacy program at a JBBA luncheon last week. The luncheon incorporated the JBBA’s monthly meeting with a training session to qualify all of the attendees for the literacy program.
Mamie Davis, a Chapter 13 trustee and president of the JBBA, said the group had been planning to join the literacy program for several months but said they had frequently run into problems getting everyone together for training and to sign up for the program’s required background check and fingerprinting.
“We had been wanting to join a program where we could give back (to the community),” Davis said. “We just had trouble getting everyone together for the fingerprinting and the training.”
Davis said JBBA became interested in Mayor John Peyton’s literacy program after Peyton spoke at one of its luncheons in the fall.
Now that all of the lawyers who attended the meeting are properly trained and registered, the group will begin their reading sessions this week. On every Thursday until school is out for the summer, one member of the JBBA will go to the Head Start program at The Bridge of Northeast Florida child care center in Springfield to read a book to a group of 3- to 5-year-olds.
Training the lawyers to become volunteer readers was Chad Burns, the corporate and community involvement manager for the Jacksonville Children’s Commission. Burns said the literacy program has several corporate and community groups that have signed up and was pleased the JBBA chose to join.
“It is a great program and we have been getting nothing but great responses to it,” he said. “We are looking forward to getting more partners for Year Two.”
Besides the Mayor’s literacy program, Davis announced that the JBBA is also developing a financial literacy program. She said the financial literacy program, which is geared towards older students in the area, will emphasize financial responsibility and credit awareness.
“We are developing it now but we will be implementing it in a few months,” she said.