VERO BEACH – In recognition of National Foster Care Month, Children’s Home Society of Florida, Treasure Coast Division, recently celebrated its annual Indian River County Volunteer Appreciation Day on May 24. Staff and Advisory Board members hailed the important role that volunteers fill for our community’s most vulnerable children and young adults.
“These amazing volunteers make it possible for Children’s Home Society to extend the scope of services that we can provide for children who have become part of the foster care system because of abuse, abandonment and neglect,” explained Jan Swink Huffert, Executive Director, Children’s Home Society of Florida, Treasure Coast Division. “They enrich our organization and play an essential role in helping us achieve our mission to break the cycle of child abuse and turn many young lives around.”
One such example is volunteer Jimmy Stovall, a highly regarded Highwayman, Florida Landscape Artist. In addition to donating numerous original paintings over the years to Children’s Home Society for auction, he’s also donated his time for the past several years teaching foster children how to paint during the annual two-day “Kids Love Art” Workshop.
Founded in 2004, the Kids Love Art Workshop has honed the talents of over 100 budding artists on the Treasure Coast. Each child creates two works of art during the workshop, one the child keeps and the other is auctioned at a later Kids Love Art Auction, which raises much needed funds to support the workshop and other life enrichment activities for foster children. Other artists that have donated their time and talent for the workshop are James Gibson, Maryann Carroll, Roy McLendon, Kelvin Hair, Zanobia Jefferson, Susan Somerset-Webb, Judy Coffman, Steve Noel and Linda Yates.
A broad range of volunteer experiences are available including one-on-one youth mentoring, event committees, board leadership, office support and holiday gift drives, to name a few.
For information or to learn more about volunteer opportunities, visit www.chsfl.org or call 772-344-4020.
