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
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HCBA LAWYER
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