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!["We've got kids and people sleeping under bridges tonight, right down the street about a mile from here," said Don Wallace, above. "It's a terrible thing to think we live in a country like this and we have people and children living like that. All of us have a responsibility to do something about that. And it's so good to see so many people [here] interested and doing something about it."
Wallace, of the Erika and Don Wallace Family Foundation, spoke at the April 3, 2009 Grand Opening celebration of A Kid's Place in Brandon. It was noted in promotional materials that making "this community project a reality" was "tremendous support" from the Wallace foundation, along with the Lazydays Partners Foundation, Sammy Sullivan Charities, Corbett Family Charitable Foundation, Dottie and Sandy MacKinnon, Patsy and Gene McNichols and the McNichols Company, and Pam and Greg Johnson and Precise Construction.
Wallace recalled how he first met Dottie Berger MacKinnon 10 years ago. He thought he was about to meet with a disgruntled customer. "Instead," he said, he met "a beautiful lady," inside and out. That relationship led to his help with the Joshua House, and now with A Kid's Place.
That experience led to an experience with the Joshua House, and now with A Kid's Place in Brandon.](http://www.mypapernow.com/Other/CIVIC-LIFE-Social-Care-A-Kids/i-DncvGmq/0/Ti/DSC_0965-Ti.jpg "\"We've got kids and people sleeping under bridges tonight, right down the street about a mile from here,\" said Don Wallace, above. \"It's a terrible thing to think we live in a country like this and we have people and children living like that. All of us have a responsibility to do something about that. And it's so good to see so many people [here] interested and doing something about it.\"
Wallace, of the Erika and Don Wallace Family Foundation, spoke at the April 3, 2009 Grand Opening celebration of A Kid's Place in Brandon. It was noted in promotional materials that making \"this community project a reality\" was \"tremendous support\" from the Wallace foundation, along with the Lazydays Partners Foundation, Sammy Sullivan Charities, Corbett Family Charitable Foundation, Dottie and Sandy MacKinnon, Patsy and Gene McNichols and the McNichols Company, and Pam and Greg Johnson and Precise Construction.
Wallace recalled how he first met Dottie Berger MacKinnon 10 years ago. He thought he was about to meet with a disgruntled customer. \"Instead,\" he said, he met \"a beautiful lady,\" inside and out. That relationship led to his help with the Joshua House, and now with A Kid's Place.
That experience led to an experience with the Joshua House, and now with A Kid's Place in Brandon.")
!["We're where the rubber meets the road," said Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee. It's the law enforcement officer who will be called to remove from his or her home a child believed to be the victim of abuse, neglect, or abandonment. These children, Gee said, face "an uncertain immediate future."
"They don't know where they're going to be that night, if they'll be with their siblings an hour from now," Gee said. "How do we limit the impact on these children?" With A Kid's Place, he added, "we have a place to put them until things settle down." The shelter, he said, "gives judges time to do a better due diligence."
Gee added that "the numbers aren't good, more than 110 kids we had to take out of homes last month [March 2009]."](http://www.mypapernow.com/Other/CIVIC-LIFE-Social-Care-A-Kids/i-kn7gjsk/0/Ti/DSC_0972-Ti.jpg "\"We're where the rubber meets the road,\" said Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee. It's the law enforcement officer who will be called to remove from his or her home a child believed to be the victim of abuse, neglect, or abandonment. These children, Gee said, face \"an uncertain immediate future.\"
\"They don't know where they're going to be that night, if they'll be with their siblings an hour from now,\" Gee said. \"How do we limit the impact on these children?\" With A Kid's Place, he added, \"we have a place to put them until things settle down.\" The shelter, he said, \"gives judges time to do a better due diligence.\"
Gee added that \"the numbers aren't good, more than 110 kids we had to take out of homes last month [March 2009].\"")
![Contractor Greg Johnson, of Precise Construction, with his wife, Pam, and their daughters, Kim Redus, left, and Amanda Moore. With them is Moore's son, Tyler. Precise Construction is a Charter Sponsor ($250,000) of A Kid's Place; Johnson's company was the center's general contractor.
"It's just a total joy for us [to be involved with A Kid's Place]," said Pam Johnson. "It's just a real joy to be able to do something like this for kids."
Johnson said as a contractor, he bid on the Joshua House in 1990. Then, he said, he was told "if you're going to be the contractor, you have to be on the board." As Johnson put it: "No one can say, 'No' to Dottie."
The Joshua House in Lutz is a residential, emergency home for abused, abandoned, and neglected children, that Dottie Berger MacKinnon also had a hand in establishing.](http://www.mypapernow.com/Other/CIVIC-LIFE-Social-Care-A-Kids/i-7PHbjkd/0/Ti/DSC_1009-Ti.jpg "Contractor Greg Johnson, of Precise Construction, with his wife, Pam, and their daughters, Kim Redus, left, and Amanda Moore. With them is Moore's son, Tyler. Precise Construction is a Charter Sponsor ($250,000) of A Kid's Place; Johnson's company was the center's general contractor.
\"It's just a total joy for us [to be involved with A Kid's Place],\" said Pam Johnson. \"It's just a real joy to be able to do something like this for kids.\"
Johnson said as a contractor, he bid on the Joshua House in 1990. Then, he said, he was told \"if you're going to be the contractor, you have to be on the board.\" As Johnson put it: \"No one can say, 'No' to Dottie.\"
The Joshua House in Lutz is a residential, emergency home for abused, abandoned, and neglected children, that Dottie Berger MacKinnon also had a hand in establishing.")
"I have some wonderful friends," said Dottie Berger MacKinnon, at the podium, at the April 3, 2009 Grand Opening celebration for A Kid's Place of Tampa Bay, a $5 million state- of the-art center for abused, abandoned, and neglected children . Located in the Greater Brandon area, at 1715 Lithia Pinecrest Road just south of Lumsden Road, the five-acre campus is comprised of five homes, approximately 3,200 square feet each, that collectively can accommodate up to 60 children.
A former Hillsborough County commissioner, Berger MacKinnon 18 years ago led a group of concerned citizens, including Bob Thomas, Olin Mott, Jim Zimmerman, Laurence Hall, Greg Johnson, and Alberto de Alejosis, in the founding of the Joshua House in Lutz, a residential home for children who have been removed from their families. At the April 3 groundbreaking, Berger MacKinnon was credited as the driving force behind the founding of A Kid's Place, too.
The facility was built entirely with private funding and in-kind contributions from local businesses, philanthropists, and volunteers. Berger for several years has rallied the passions of committed community friends to bring the center to fruition. A Kid's Place is a community initiative of Kids Charity of Tampa Bay. It provides a temporary home for a child, and his or her siblings, removed from home because of absuse, abandonment, or neglect.
A standing- room-only crowd attended the April 3 Grand Opening for a center that involves, working in partnership, Kids Charity of Tampa Bay; the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office; Department of Children & Families Services; Hillsborough Kids, Inc.; Hillsborough County School District; and various community leaders, groups, businesses, and organizations.
The aim is to provide a safe, healthy, nurturing home for children who are taken from their homes, at least temporarily, while the courts work to figure out what happened, and whether to return these children to their homes or to find for them alternative placements, A Kid's Place offers a sanctuary that aims to lessen the fear and stress that surrounds such a traumatic event in a child's life.
A Kid's Place "addresses the overwhelming need to provide comprehensive assessments for children, including hard- to-place sibling groups," reads the center's informational materials. "Our intent is to improve appropriate placement matches in foster and non-relative care. In addition, our goal is to promote healthy families, both foster and biological family units, by providing family development and assessment services supported with resources and facilitation of serves that will move them toward stability."
A former Hillsborough County commissioner, Berger MacKinnon 18 years ago led a group of concerned citizens, including Bob Thomas, Olin Mott, Jim Zimmerman, Laurence Hall, Greg Johnson, and Alberto de Alejosis, in the founding of the Joshua House in Lutz, a residential home for children who have been removed from their families. At the April 3 groundbreaking, Berger MacKinnon was credited as the driving force behind the founding of A Kid's Place, too.
The facility was built entirely with private funding and in-kind contributions from local businesses, philanthropists, and volunteers. Berger for several years has rallied the passions of committed community friends to bring the center to fruition. A Kid's Place is a community initiative of Kids Charity of Tampa Bay. It provides a temporary home for a child, and his or her siblings, removed from home because of absuse, abandonment, or neglect.
A standing- room-only crowd attended the April 3 Grand Opening for a center that involves, working in partnership, Kids Charity of Tampa Bay; the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office; Department of Children & Families Services; Hillsborough Kids, Inc.; Hillsborough County School District; and various community leaders, groups, businesses, and organizations.
The aim is to provide a safe, healthy, nurturing home for children who are taken from their homes, at least temporarily, while the courts work to figure out what happened, and whether to return these children to their homes or to find for them alternative placements, A Kid's Place offers a sanctuary that aims to lessen the fear and stress that surrounds such a traumatic event in a child's life.
A Kid's Place "addresses the overwhelming need to provide comprehensive assessments for children, including hard- to-place sibling groups," reads the center's informational materials. "Our intent is to improve appropriate placement matches in foster and non-relative care. In addition, our goal is to promote healthy families, both foster and biological family units, by providing family development and assessment services supported with resources and facilitation of serves that will move them toward stability."
A Kid's Place of Tampa Bay, a $5 million state- of the-art center for abused, abandoned, and neglected children . Located in the Greater Brandon area, at 1715 Lithia Pinecrest Road just south of Lumsden Road, the five-acre campus is comprised of five homes, approximately 3,200 square feet each, that collectively can accommodate up to 60 children.
A former Hillsborough County commissioner, Berger MacKinnon 18 years ago led a group of concerned citizens, including Bob Thomas, Olin Mott, Jim Zimmerman, Laurence Hall, Greg Johnson, and Alberto de Alejosis, in the founding of the Joshua House in Lutz, a residential home for children who have been removed from their families. At the April 3 groundbreaking, Berger MacKinnon was credited as the driving force behind the founding of A Kid's Place, too.
The facility was built entirely with private funding and in-kind contributions from local businesses, philanthropists, and volunteers. Berger for several years has rallied the passions of committed community friends to bring the center to fruition. A Kid's Place is a community initiative of Kids Charity of Tampa Bay. It provides a temporary home for a child, and his or her siblings, removed from home because of absuse, abandonment, or neglect.
A standing- room-only crowd attended the April 3 Grand Opening for a center that involves, working in partnership, Kids Charity of Tampa Bay; the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office; Department of Children & Families Services; Hillsborough Kids, Inc.; Hillsborough County School District; and various community leaders, groups, businesses, and organizations.
The aim is to provide a safe, healthy, nurturing home for children who are taken from their homes, at least temporarily, while the courts work to figure out what happened, and whether to return these children to their homes or to find for them alternative placements, A Kid's Place offers a sanctuary that aims to lessen the fear and stress that surrounds such a traumatic event in a child's life.
A Kid's Place "addresses the overwhelming need to provide comprehensive assessments for children, including hard- to-place sibling groups," reads the center's informational materials. "Our intent is to improve appropriate placement matches in foster and non-relative care. In addition, our goal is to promote healthy families, both foster and biological family units, by providing family development and assessment services supported with resources and facilitation of serves that will move them toward stability."" href="javascript:openLB(504570838,'',XLarge,'',982,768);">
"I have some wonderful friends," said Dottie Berger MacKinnon, at the podium, at the April 3, 2009 Grand Opening celebration for A Kid's Place of Tampa Bay, a $5 million state- of the-art center for abused, abandoned, and neglected children . Located in the Greater Brandon area, at 1715 Lithia Pinecrest Road just south of Lumsden Road, the five-acre campus is comprised of five homes, approximately 3,200 square feet each, that collectively can accommodate up to 60 children.
A former Hillsborough County commissioner, Berger MacKinnon 18 years ago led a group of concerned citizens, including Bob Thomas, Olin Mott, Jim Zimmerman, Laurence Hall, Greg Johnson, and Alberto de Alejosis, in the founding of the Joshua House in Lutz, a residential home for children who have been removed from their families. At the April 3 groundbreaking, Berger MacKinnon was credited as the driving force behind the founding of A Kid's Place, too.
The facility was built entirely with private funding and in-kind contributions from local businesses, philanthropists, and volunteers. Berger for several years has rallied the passions of committed community friends to bring the center to fruition. A Kid's Place is a community initiative of Kids Charity of Tampa Bay. It provides a temporary home for a child, and his or her siblings, removed from home because of absuse, abandonment, or neglect.
A standing- room-only crowd attended the April 3 Grand Opening for a center that involves, working in partnership, Kids Charity of Tampa Bay; the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office; Department of Children & Families Services; Hillsborough Kids, Inc.; Hillsborough County School District; and various community leaders, groups, businesses, and organizations.
The aim is to provide a safe, healthy, nurturing home for children who are taken from their homes, at least temporarily, while the courts work to figure out what happened, and whether to return these children to their homes or to find for them alternative placements, A Kid's Place offers a sanctuary that aims to lessen the fear and stress that surrounds such a traumatic event in a child's life.
A Kid's Place "addresses the overwhelming need to provide comprehensive assessments for children, including hard- to-place sibling groups," reads the center's informational materials. "Our intent is to improve appropriate placement matches in foster and non-relative care. In addition, our goal is to promote healthy families, both foster and biological family units, by providing family development and assessment services supported with resources and facilitation of serves that will move them toward stability."
A former Hillsborough County commissioner, Berger MacKinnon 18 years ago led a group of concerned citizens, including Bob Thomas, Olin Mott, Jim Zimmerman, Laurence Hall, Greg Johnson, and Alberto de Alejosis, in the founding of the Joshua House in Lutz, a residential home for children who have been removed from their families. At the April 3 groundbreaking, Berger MacKinnon was credited as the driving force behind the founding of A Kid's Place, too.
The facility was built entirely with private funding and in-kind contributions from local businesses, philanthropists, and volunteers. Berger for several years has rallied the passions of committed community friends to bring the center to fruition. A Kid's Place is a community initiative of Kids Charity of Tampa Bay. It provides a temporary home for a child, and his or her siblings, removed from home because of absuse, abandonment, or neglect.
A standing- room-only crowd attended the April 3 Grand Opening for a center that involves, working in partnership, Kids Charity of Tampa Bay; the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office; Department of Children & Families Services; Hillsborough Kids, Inc.; Hillsborough County School District; and various community leaders, groups, businesses, and organizations.
The aim is to provide a safe, healthy, nurturing home for children who are taken from their homes, at least temporarily, while the courts work to figure out what happened, and whether to return these children to their homes or to find for them alternative placements, A Kid's Place offers a sanctuary that aims to lessen the fear and stress that surrounds such a traumatic event in a child's life.
A Kid's Place "addresses the overwhelming need to provide comprehensive assessments for children, including hard- to-place sibling groups," reads the center's informational materials. "Our intent is to improve appropriate placement matches in foster and non-relative care. In addition, our goal is to promote healthy families, both foster and biological family units, by providing family development and assessment services supported with resources and facilitation of serves that will move them toward stability."
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