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Highlands Today

7 Finalists Named For Champion For Children's Award

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Special to Highlands Today

Published: August 1, 2008

SEBRING - The Children's Services Foundation is primed to recognize seven finalists from among 25 nominations, and choose a single winner of the 2008 Champion for Children's Award at its annual gala.

The 9th annual Judge Clifton M. Kelly Champion for Children's Award Gala will take place at the Restoration Center, Sept., 25, starting at 6 p.m.

The single award winner will be announced following an evening of recognition and entertainment.

The selection committee will soon meet to study resumes and support documentation for all finalists, and then pick a winner, who will be announced the night of the gala.

Net proceeds of the gala help children and families in the community, primarily abused children, domestic violence victims and parents /caretakers facing challenges associated with caring for their seriously ill or seriously injured children.

Invitations will be sent to all 2008 sponsors in September.

The award was created in 2000 to recognize the service by people who have improved the quality of life of children and youth in Highlands County. The award was named after longtime advocate for children, Judge Clifton M. Kelly, retired circuit judge for the 10th Judicial Circuit, who died in 2005.

The 2008 Champion for Children finalists are:

•Lt. John Chess: Member of the Highlands County Sheriff's Office since 1984; strives to hold offenders accountable for their crimes; has worked with child abuse and sexual exploitation cases; heads up a sheriff's office special victim's unit in conjunction with the DCF for both child and adult abuse cases; and collaborates with other agencies.

•Edna Jackson: Retired 33-year teacher and a foster mother; 55 years of service to Highlands County schools and churches; raised 21 children, plus seven nieces and nephews, two grand nephews and 14 foster children; took many troubled children in for short term stays.

•Velma Lumpkin: Executive director of the Avon Park Community Child Development Center Inc. for 26 years; 50-plus year advocate for children; volunteer in a neonatal intensive care unit in North Carolina; member of several coalition councils and boards.

•Jacquelyn Rawlings: A 37-year advocate for children, she is the supervisor for the Healthy Start program for the county for 15 years; a 20 -year veteran of the Department of Children and Families and at the HRMC for more than a year; adopted five special needs children, is a former child protective investigator, protective services worker, foster care worker, and director of a state-run group home for teenage foster children.

Rawlings is also chairperson for the Highlands County Healthy Start Community Action Group; is a member of the Board of Early Learning Coalition, a member of the Fetal Infant Mortality Review Team, the Domestic Violence Task Force, the Behavior Health Task Force, the Community Health Improvement Planning Council and the Immunization Task Force.

•Russ Sharp: Guidance counselor in the county for 18 years, Ohio teacher, administrator and counselor of 19 years; 37-year children's advocate; expert with intervention of at risk students; Principal's Award and STAR Teacher Award winner; developed programs for Red Ribbon Week; instituted the Freshman Preview Night to welcome freshmen at Avon Park High; at Avon Elementary developed Helping Hands - a guidance program; developed parenting programs and programs for visiting agriculture workers.

•John Varady: Thirteen-year advocate for children; three years at Lake Placid Elementary and six years at Lake Placid High School; works with disabled children to help them grow academically and socially; Eckles Award Winner for outstanding educators in 2007; and coached Special Olympics, while also coaching Special Stars and working with the Miracle League of Lake Placid.

•Dennis Ward: Child protective investigator for Department of Children and Families for the past seven years; Links families to proper services; advocate for children in court and acts as their voice; travels often on behalf of children to alleviate workload of fellow staffers.

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