Believe it or not, the holidays are right around the corner and will be upon us before we can bat an eyelash. I have no idea where the time goes, but I swear it seems like it was just yesterday I was just looking forward to the 2008 Players Championship.
As you all know, with the Christmas season comes crowded shopping malls, awkward office Christmas parties and questionable family members staying at your house. I am the first to admit that I find myself complaining about the woman with 15 items in the “Express Line,” or Steve from Human Resources’ pointless, rambling diatribes after too much red wine. I think all of us need to put things in perspective sometimes to remind ourselves that we are very fortunate. As the old, trite saying goes, “everything is relative.”
When I think about my complaints with the holidays, especially Christmas, I am embarrassed when comparing them to the issues facing some children in our surrounding communities. Many children live day in and day out in abusive homes, or with parents who are addicts and cannot properly care for themselves, let alone for a minor child.
Unfortunately, out of necessity, some of these children are forced to be displaced from either their home or foster home during the holidays and do not get to experience a Christmas. I cannot even imagine being a child, and waking up on Christmas morning as if it was just another day in the year. I mean, I can remember being upset on Christmas morning because I did not get the newest Air Jordans, or because my sister received two more presents from Santa, when I was clearly the golden child.
It is a travesty that these children do not get to experience opening presents on Christmas morning. That’s where the Holiday in January comes into play. For the last six years the Jacksonville Bar Association Young Lawyers Section has teamed up with Family Support Services to provide a Christmas for these less fortunate children.
Now, many of you have heard of the “Holiday in January” but do not really know what the event actually entails or the children it benefits. To be perfectly candid, I only had a glib idea of what this event represents and the children that it helps, before I was appointed committee chair of the “Holiday in January.”
The goal of “Holiday in January” is to provide a Christmas for children who have been removed or displaced from their homes by the Dependency Court (for one reason or another), during Christmas. This year, the annual event will be hosted on campus at Family Support Services on Saturday, Jan. 24 at 10 a.m. The event will have games, presents for the children, and special guests to atone for the Christmas (or lack thereof) that these less fortunate children did not experience. Candace Monroe and Chuck Young at Family Support Services are an integral part in hosting this great event, and are the main reason for the success of the “Holiday in January.”
In the past, the Holiday in January event has helped approximately 20 children. However, due to our astute Fourth Judicial Circuit Dependency Court judges, fewer and fewer children each year are being displaced from their homes during Christmas. The simple reality of the matter is that the bench is hesitant, and understandably so, to remove or displace children from their homes during such a pivotal, family-oriented occasion. Thus, in an attempt to garner more children to benefit from this event, we have decided to broaden the scope of the children invited to participate in the “Holiday in January.”
This year, we are inviting displaced children in both Nassau and Clay Counties, and in addition, unlike in years past, we will be inviting children that technically are not in the “system” as displaced children, so to speak, but who nonetheless did not get to experience Christmas.
Hopefully, by expanding our invitations to the event, we will be able to bring Christmas to as many less fortunate children as possible. If anyone has any innovative ideas and/or would like to volunteer their time in any capacity, please contact Candace Monroe or Chuck Young at Family Support Services at (904) 421-5800. I know the children attending the event will be ecstatic to be celebrating Christmas, and any time you can volunteer would be greatly appreciated.