Name: Mike Cavendish
Age: 36
Family: wife Michele, daughter Caroline (5), son Harrison (1).
Pets: Richmond (labrador)
Education:UF College of Law JD ‘98, UF Graduate School MA ‘95 (Anthropology), FSU BS ‘93 (Anthropology). (Colleges, degree, major, year graduated)
Admitted to the Bar: 1998
Employed by: Gunster Yoakley
Field of practice: Commercial litigation
Professional Organizations: JBA, Fla. Bar, Fla. Bar Foundation, ABA, American Inns of Court Foundation
Community Involvement:
I cannot discuss being involved with Jacksonville without discussing Downtown Ecumenical Services Council (DESC). DESC is at a little unassuming door near the corner of Ocean and Adams, between the steps of Bedell’s office and the gates of First Presbyterian Church. DESC takes donations of food (and money), and stocks them like a grocery clerk would, and then apportions them to local families who work but don’t make enough to buy all the food they need – all year long, all volunteers, no bureaucracy, nothing wasted.
How did you get involved?
Ten years ago there was a DESC volunteer who I knew from Riverside Presbyterian Church, and one day she mentioned in passing that DESC was running low on boxes of macaroni and cheese. It seemed pure and basic, so different from what I was encountering while practicing law. And it was a problem that was so solvable. I was at the store the next day buying half a shelf’s worth.
Why did you get involved?
I loved the anonymity of it. No plaques, no gala evenings, no mentions on the local news. It was an opportunity to contribute without self-advancement coming in to play. Invisible giving, I have experienced, feels a thousand percent better than giving that gets listed in a glossy program. I think that is why some handy people love to build houses for Habijax on weekends. It’s the same principle.
What have you learned/achieved through the experience?
Direct dynamic philanthropy, being present at the scene of the need and personally providing the solution through completion, is what I am working on, trying to do more of. It is flexible, it can be about money or, equally, about time and interest. It forbids one from forgetting about the need after the contribution is made, which leads to further contributions. It also allows for creativity, matching a single solution to two needs and multiplying the effect of the gift. Example, find three families who could make progress if they could spend less of their wages on food, and find three farmers or harvesters who sell their own produce and need cash to fuel their tractors and trucks. Every week buy the produce and deliver it to the families. That’s one act a week that solves six problems.
What was the last book you read or are reading?
I just started American Lion, the new bio of Andrew Jackson. He was 6 feet tall, like me. He weighed 140 pounds; not like me. But he didn’t have a couch and a television!