HCBA Lawyer Magazine Vol. 28, No. 4 | Page 9

Y L D P R E S I D E N T ’ S M E S S A G E Melissa Mora - Adventist Health System Continued from page 6 Immediate HCBA Past President Kevin McLaughlin made the project a priority during his tenure as president in the 2016-2017 year. Under his leadership, the HCBA, other Bar affiliates, and a number of law firms staffed reading sessions with volunteer lawyers at Booker T. Washington Elementary, Just Elementary, West Tampa Elementary, Broward Elementary, Graham Elementary and Edison Elementary — schools with many families living below the poverty level. In the 2016-2017 year, lawyers volunteered 208 hours reading to 167 children at these six elementary schools, and 557 books were donated to the children. In the 2017-2018 year, the Read to Dream program continues to grow. For the Fall 2017 session, the program had 12 teams of volunteer readers that each sent one to two volunteer readers per week. In the fall session alone, lawyers volunteered 144 hours reading to 122 children at these six elementary schools, and 854 books were already donated to the children. In addition to the volunteer readers, the program also has a school coordinator that serves as the point of contact each week at the school assisting with keeping everything running smoothly — their combined donated time for the Fall 2017 session is over 50 hours. We also have had local attorneys assist in gathering in-kind book donations for the program, including member Melanie Griffin shown in the photo on the previous page. This allows children to take home books each week geared towards different reading levels. With the support of the lawyers in the surrounding community and The Florida Bar YLD, we hope to surpass last year’s numbers of volunteer hours, books donated, and, most importantly, children reached in our community. If you are interested in volunteering with the Read to Dream program, please reach out to the HCBA for more information. With John Germany’s guidance and a bit of luck, maybe lawyers won’t always have such a bad rap. Author: Laura Tanner – Burr & Forman LLP Coffee at the Courthouse and Judicial Shadowing Event the members of the young lawyers division had a great morning meeting and shadowing judges from the thirteenth Judicial Circuit and second dCa at their annual Coffee at the Courthouse event on January 23. thank you to the judges for taking the time to participate in this event and to bush ross P.a. for sponsoring this event. MAR - APR 2018 | HCBA LAWYER 7