HCBA Lawyer Magazine Vol. 28, No. 6 | Page 6

H C B A P R E S I D E N T ’ S M E S S A G E G o r d o n H i l l - H i l l W a r d H e n d e r s o n

Farewell and thank you

it has been a pleasure and a privilege to serve as Bar president .
As Bar President this year , I have endeavored to combat the undeserved negative reputation our profession often has in society by highlighting the great work performed by some of our Association ’ s legal heroes . For example , Stephen Todd won the statewide Tobias Simon Pro Bono Service Award for contributing well over 2,000 pro bono hours during his career . Stephen Koch left his legal career 15 years ago to serve as President and CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Tampa Bay and was instrumental in expanding the agency ’ s outreach to thousands more underprivileged kids in desperate need of an adult mentor . Jeanne Tate started the “ Lawyers With Heart ” initiative that helped raise over $ 108,000 for Tampa Bay ’ s 2017 Heart Walk . And Carol LoCicero and Bob Kline founded the Tampa branch of End 68 Hours of Hunger , which collects and delivers food each week to over 200 children who might not otherwise have anything to eat . I hope that you have been inspired by their exemplary work . I believe their service demonstrates that lawyers do more to give back to the community than any other profession .
As I close out my final article , I want to highlight one last legal hero — Lisa Esposito , winner of the 2018 Red McEwen Award . For the last several years , Lisa has led
Lisa Esposito receiving the Red McEwen Award .
the HCBA ’ s Community Service Committee and has played a vital part in organizing the Committee ’ s many service projects . Here is the story of just one of these outstanding projects .
Several years ago , Lisa was looking for a charity to serve . She found A Kid ’ s Place of Tampa Bay , which
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