30th Anniversary

Philadelphia VIP 30th Anniversary

Thank you for helping Philadelphia VIP celebrate thirty years of service to our community. To commemorate the anniversary, we launched a series of initiatives. Those initiatives included a four-part Speaker Series, the 30th Anniversary Gala, the "30 for 30" Pledge, and the Giving Circle Challenge. The results of these initiatives are detailed below:

Speaker Series

VIP hosted a quarterly Speaker Series featuring prominent experts who discussed current issues connected to VIP’s core focus areas; maintaining family income, preventing homelessness, promoting community economic development, and supporting family stability. With almost 100 attendees, the series featured:

• Owen Lefkon, Former Assistant Attorney General for Massachusetts & Assistant Attorney General for Delaware, who focused on preventing homelessness in his discussion of Massachusetts and Delware’s recent legal efforts regarding mortgage foreclosure.

• Dede Meyers, Vice President and Community Affairs Officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, who spoke about the future of community reinvestment in challenging times and the effect on community economic development.

• Anne Marie Ambrose, Commissioner of the Philadelphia Department of Human Services, conveyed the importance of family stability in improving outcomes for children in Philadelphia.

VIP is grateful to our speakers for volunteering their time and talent. In addition to our featured speakers, we would like to thank our sponsors, Citizens Bank and the Public Interest Section of the Philadelphia Bar Association; our hosts, Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC, White & Williams LLP, and Fox Rothschild LLP; and VIP’s Engagement Committee for making the Speaker Series an outstanding success.

30th Anniversary Gala

Philadelphia VIP held its 30th Anniversary Gala on March 19 at the Westin Philadelphia to celebrate the dedicated efforts of volunteers and friends who have supported VIP throughout the years. The gala drew over 460 friends and supporters of Philadelphia VIP and raised over $340,000. The event also recognized several outstanding champions of VIP who have humbly served throughout the years to advance VIP’s mission. The award recipients included former Governor Edward G. Rendell, who was honored with the Pinnacle Award for his outstanding commitment to legal services for the poor and delivered the keynote address; Kenneth Shear, Executive Director of the Philadelphia Bar Association; Eve Biskind Klothen, the first Executive Director of VIP; Francis P. Devine, III, former Chancellor and Board President of VIP; Pam Moody, the first VIP staff member; and Jay Meyers, the Anniversary Volunteer who was recognized for his twenty five years of outstanding service as a volunteer attorney.

“30 for 30” Pledge

VIP launched the “30 for 30” Pledge as a challenge to all attorneys and law students to perform 30 hours of pro bono service in 2011. Over 200 lawyers answered the call and pledged to provide over 6,000 hours of pro bono service to agencies throughout the Commonwealth, which will result in more than $1.2 million dollars in free legal services to those most in need.

At the First Judicial District of Pennsylvania’s 2011 Pro Bono Publico Awards Ceremony, VIP recognized two independent lawyers, Bella Schnall and Alfonso Madrid, and one law firm, Ballard Spahr LLP, for exemplifying the commitment the Philadelphia legal community has to pro bono service through this challenge.

Giving Circle Challenge

A generous donor and longtime supporter of Philadelphia VIP gave VIP a $100,000 gift for VIP’s 30th Anniversary year. Part of the gift was a challenge: to raise $75,000, which the donor agreed to match dollar for dollar up to $75,000. All of the money raised through the Anniversary Challenge will be held in a special 30th Anniversary Fund to ensure VIP can assist those most in need in our community for another 30 years. VIP, with the help of numerous supporters, exceeded the challenge, raising over $98,000! We are extremely grateful and humbled by this achievement.

Finally, we would like to recognize and thank all the sponsors of our 30th Anniversary year. We are truly grateful for your generous support of our important mission.

Thank you to everyone that made VIP’s 30th Anniversary a success.

We look forward to another 30 years of saying YES!

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Philadelphia VIP's 30th Anniversary Video

Thank you to VIP's 30th Anniversary Host Committee:

David Abernethy	Joseph Foster	Roslyn Pollack
Mark Aronchick	Stephen M. Foxman	Jason Poore
Lawrence Beaser	Nancy Fullam	Rafael Porrata-Doria
Joni Berner	Rudolph Garcia	A. Michael Pratt
Leonard Bernstein	Barbara Gotthelf	Carl Primavera
Gabriel Bevilacqua	Peter Hearn	Patricia Randall
Bruce Bikin	Henry Hockheimer	Abraham Reich
Eve Biskind Klothen	Kim Jessum	Peter Rossi
Leonard Busby	Ernest Jones	Louis Rulli
Andrew Chirls	David Kaplan	Walter Schanbacher
Robert S. Cohen	Stephen Kastenberg	Lee A. Schwartz
Matthew Comisky	Alexander Kerr	Kenneth Shear
Jane Dalton	Mark C. Levy	Barbara Sicalides
Andre Dennis	Charisse Lillie	Audrey Talley
Francis Devine, III	Rick Lowe	Joseph Torregrossa
Tanya Deyo	Christopher McCabe	Michael Trudgeon
Kimberly Dolan	Charles Mapp, Sr.	Kenneth Trujillo
Christopher Fallon	John McNamara	Stella Tsai
William Fedullo	Robert Mongeluzzi	Suzanne Turner
Michael Fein	Jeffrey Norton	David Unkovic
Alan Feldman	Kathy Ochroch	Kimberly West
Michael Fingerman	Eduardo Otero	Thomas Zemaitis
Karen Forman	Carl "Tobey" Oxholm, III