| Bar Bulletin |
December,
2003 |
| MSBA News |
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MD Attorneys Bring A Little More to the Holiday Table
~Local Bar Associations Fill the Hearts and Plates of
Those Less Fortunate~
By Tom Breihan
This holiday season, some Maryland attorneys are carrying their sense of
community well beyond the legal profession. Independently of one another,
the members of three different local Maryland bar associations have
conducted turkey drives to provide less fortunate families with
Thanksgiving dinners.
“We all just thought that this was something that could make us all feel
good, and at the same time we’d be fulfilling a need in our community,”
says David Gaskill, Chair of the Worcester County Bar Association’s (WCBA)
Committee on Charitable Endeavors, who began the Association’s annual
turkey drive five years ago when he was the Association’s president.
When Gaskill began the program, he had the unique idea of going through
elementary schools to distribute the dinners to needy families. “A friend
of mine at that time was principal of Buckingham elementary school, and
through discussions with him I had become aware that there were children
who were needy in Worcester County,” says Gaskill. “I thought that school
principals and guidance counselors would best be able to identify if there
was truly a need.”
Each WCBA member’s donation of $50 helps to buy turkey dinners for 200
families. The Super Fresh supermarket in Ocean City provides the turkeys
and trimmings to the WCBA at cost, and store employees also help box the
dinners up and deliver them. On the last school day before Thanksgiving,
the turkeys are delivered to four area elementary schools, where the
families pick them up and prepare them in their own homes. “It’s a nice
experience,” says Gaskill. “Everyone is just really happy with the
program.”
The Anne Arundel County Bar Association’s (AABA) turkey drive, now in its
second year, has taken a page from Gaskill’s book. Last year, the AABA
distributed frozen turkey dinners to members of the Admiral Oaks community
in Annapolis, but this year the organization has expanded the drive to Van
Brocklyn Elementary School. “We worked with the principal at Van Brocklyn,
and she readily said that she was going to participate and would be able
to assist in identifying the households where there were people in need,”
says AABA President Trevor Kiessling.
Then AABA President Kevin Schaeffer began the Anne Arundel turkey drive
last year, and the Association has managed to expand his vision. “This
year, we’ve been able to kick it up a notch in that we’ve almost doubled
the contributions and the number of families served,” says Kiessling.
“Last year we served approximately 200 families with $4,000 raised, and
this year I just got word that we’re right around $7,000, and it’ll be
about 350 families that’ll be served.”
The AABA solicited its members for contributions of $20 – enough to buy a
turkey dinner for one family, thanks to the participation of Graul’s
Markets. As in Worcester County, the turkeys were then delivered to
members of the community for preparation in their own homes. Members of
the Association, including the Honorable Rodney Warren and the Honorable
David Bruce, assisted in delivering the turkeys.
“This was the organized effort of the Bar Association where lawyers give
back to the community, and we want to make sure everyone knows that we
lawyers are part of the community and that we do give back,” says
Kiessling. “It’s a wonderful opportunity for lawyers who are members of
the bar to help folks out who need a helping hand this year, and we’re
really pleased that there has been such a strong turnout from the
Association. And we hope to do even better next year.”
Meanwhile, the Frederick County Bar Association (FCBA) has a completely
different setup for its long-running annual turkey drive. Rather than
delivering frozen dinners to needy families for preparation in their own
homes, the members serve the dinners to Frederick’s needy residents
individually. “The folks come in and sit down, we take their order, and
then we prepare a plate for them and bring it over and give it to them,”
says FCBA member Christopher Rolle, who ran this year’s turkey drive along
with fellow member Jack Quinn. “They’re actually waited on like in a
restaurant.”
Rather than making financial donations, FCBA attorneys work with a local
chapter of the Salvation Army to deliver and serve the food that the
organization needs. “The people who sign up to provide the food pay for it
themselves and bring it over to the Salvation Army,” says Rolle.
FCBA members spend virtually all of Thanksgiving Day serving the food they
contributed. “It’s a nice opportunity for lawyers to show that we have
heart, that we aren’t just the cold-hearted people that the press portrays
us to be,” says Rolle. “There are a lot of lawyers out there who like to
try to help people.”
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