Terry D. Weiler, President

Bar Foundation Holiday Benefit Luncheon with Larry Bowa, Friday, December 3, 2010, Reading Crowne Plaza

Available Forms:

Invitation
Registration Insert
Sponsor Insert

Welcome

The Berks County Bar Foundation ("Foundation") is a non-profit corporation designed to raise and provide funds to support charitable, law-related projects, programs and services in Berks County.

PROJECTS FUNDED BY THE BERKS COUNTY BAR FOUNDATION

Bridge Fund

In collaboration with the Berks County Community Foundation, which administers the Fund, the Bar Foundation provides funding for one-half of the Bridge Fund. The concept of the Bridge Fund is that “a little can go a long way to keep a kid out of the legal system.” Grants from the Bridge Fund are recommended by social workers or agents of the court system and are approved by a judge on a case-by-case basis. The fund is not meant o provide continual support, but rather to bridge a gap in service and keep a child out of the legal system.

For example, a single father was worried about losing his three-, four- and six-year-old daughters to foster care. Each night, he dropped the girls off at the Second Street Learning Center while he worked full-time on the graveyard shift. While he could pay for their overnight care, he could not afford the extra payments that would allow the girls to stay at the center until noon so he could sleep. After application by his social worker, a $300.00 grant was awarded that provided five weeks of childcare and allowed the girls to stay together with their father. The Bridge Fund has also helped several families stay together during the winter months after they exhausted all other funding and programs for free or low-cost heating oil. In most cases, the families were again eligible for free oil after a waiting period. The Bridge Fund provided oil during the waiting period, allowing the children to remain in their parents’ care because their homes had heat.

The Friends of the Drug Treatment Court Fund

Also in collaboration with the Community Foundation, the Bar Foundation provides financial assistance for participants of the Berks County Drug and Mental Health Treatment Court. This is a new program which is just getting up and running and will work similar to the Bridge Fund by assisting those in need with such things as paying for required weekly drug testing.

Court Appointed Special Advocates

The Court Appointed Special Advocate Program (CASA) is actually an initiative of United Way of Berks County but receives funding from the Berks County Bar Foundation. Its mission is to provide advocacy to children who are in the custody of the court system as a result of abuse and/or neglect. The CASA Program works to find a safe and permanent placement for all children involved in the program.

Specially trained CASA volunteers are appointed by a judge to represent the best interests of a child in court. Volunteers work closely with the child and his/her family members, caseworkers, teachers, health officials and others who are knowledgeable about the child’s history. Volunteers study each case and make recommendations to the court to help the child be placed in a safe and permanent home as quickly as possible.

Currently, 14 CASA volunteers, who are not lawyers, are serving as the voice in court for local children who have been abused or neglected.

Book ‘Em

On an annual basis, the Bar Foundation has been funding the purchase of a new book for each kindergarten student in the Reading School District. Before the selected book is given to each child, a lawyer or other member of the community reads it to the class. The project helps the young students to develop their reading skills and assists them in starting their own library.

Publications

The Young Lawyers’ Section of the Berks County Bar Association has written a publication known as “Stepping Out.” It is distributed to graduating seniors in schools that participate in the program, which is designed to alert them to issues they face in life after school, such as concerns with landlord-tenant, credit, purchase of a car, etc. The cost of the booklet’s publication is underwritten by the Bar Foundation.

In addition, the Senior Citizens Booklet Committee of the Berks County Bar Association has written a publication known as “Older and Wiser.” It is designed to answer legal questions concerning the rights of senior citizens. The cost of its publication is also underwritten by the Bar Foundation.

Message from the President

July 2010

Initially, let me say I am honored to be the President of your Berks County Bar Foundation succeeding Heidi Masano who had a most active and successful two-year term.

By way of a quick yearly summary, the Holiday Benefit Luncheon with Pete Rose as the speaker was extremely successful, netting approximately $20,000 for the Foundation. Kudos to the entire committee and most particularly to Mark Caltagirone, an extremely active non-lawyer Bar Foundation Board Member, for chairing this event.

In addition, the Scholarship Committee of the Foundation has recommended awarding a scholarship to an Alvernia student who will be graduating in 2011 with a degree in criminal justice. We have also pledged funds for the creation of a personal assistance awards fund which would provide funding for worthy requests that do not meet the Bridge Fund criteria, all of which are administered by the Berks County Community Foundation. We continue to support the Bridge Fund in providing grants to keep an at-risk child out of the court system. Your Bar Foundation also helps to fund the Court Appointed Special Advocate Program to provide training for volunteer non-lawyers to serve as the voice in court for local children who have been abused or neglected.

Such programs require monetary support. I am happy to report that our Annual Giving Campaign in 2009 resulted in $16,000 being collected, representing an increase over the prior year. Contributors included a total of 76 lawyers and judges, as well as 10 non-lawyer contributors.

Please save the date for our next Holiday Benefit luncheon, which will be Friday, December 3, 2010 at the Reading Crowne Hotel with Larry Bowa to be the featured speaker. It is our sincere hope we can add to the success of the prior year and raise more funds for the good work of the Foundation.

Finally, you will in the near future be seeing a new face to the Foundation with a roll-out of some innovative and exciting materials and projects. I would challenge each of you to remember this is in fact YOUR Foundation and you have the distinct honor and privilege to be a member of a Foundation which does extremely good works for the community and which attempts to put the best possible light on our profession. It is a unique opportunity for your involvement, your enrichment and your generosity and I hope you will work closely with me and my fellow Board Members in making this Bar Foundation grow into a successful self-sustaining unit.

If we can be of any service to you, please do not hesitate to call and I look forward to serving as your Bar Foundation President.

Terry D. Weiler