By Lara M. LaVoie and Lisa Esposito
A Kid’s Place in Brandon is a nonprofit center for abused, neglected, and abandoned children that is designed to resemble a true neighborhood street (five houses built in a semicircle). It is an amazing place where kids can relax, refocus, and heal after suffering abuse, neglect, and abandonment. Twelve kids live in each house, and the focus is to keep siblings together in the same home.
To help these amazing children feel like kids for a day, the Community Services Committee (CSC), in conjunction with A Kid’s Place, threw them their very own Pirate Party on May 3. This was the CSC’s most challenging but deserving event to date, and it was a resounding success thanks to all who donated or came out to help! We had some amazing activities, and everyone had a blast — kids and the CSC’s volunteers included.
We played pirate games such as Pirate Balloon Burst, Find a Pirate Ducky, and Poke the Pirate Corn-Hole, and we allowed every little scallywag to pick prizes out of our treasure chest after “winning” each game. We dressed the little buccaneers as pirates (hats, eye-patches, sashes, swords, tattoos, etc.) and let them make their very own pirate treasure chests in our craft section. Bouncy houses were donated by Jungle Jim’s Party Rentals and StimuLite-LED. Smokey Bones of Brandon served up the grub, and Outrageous Cakes created smashing pirate cupcakes and cookies. We had a face painter and balloon artist, and each child received a swag bag! Sixty little swashbucklers and 45 adult pirates were seen laughing throughout the day. In fact, laughter was heard throughout A Kid’s Place, and it was heard often!
The CSC is humbled and overwhelmed by the amount of donations and volunteer support that we received for this event. This party was a great success due to the support and generosity of our volunteers and donors. The CSC would like to thank all our volunteers and the Hillsborough County Bar Association, as well as the following donors: Friedman Law Associates, PL/FL Legal Group (especially Melissa Gonzalez); Law Offices of Lisa Esposito, P.A.; Jungle Jim's Party Rentals; StimuLite-LED; Smokey Bones Bar & Fire Grill of Brandon, and General Manager Tishara Griffis; Outrageous Cakes; Hill Ward Henderson; Larson & Johnson PL, Mary Simmons/CPA-TPA; Olsen Law Firm, PA; Ron Christaldi and Shumaker Loop & Kendrick LLP; Older & Lundy; Anton Castro Law; Maria Maranda and State Farm Insurance; AJ’s Bikes & Boards, LLC; Arturo & Vienna Fuente; Tampa Sweet Hearts Cigar Company; Fernando Llop and PLSS Paving; Attorney Ashley Taylor; Meddin Law Firm; Krista Marie Sellars Memorial Foundation; Kevin and Jane Sigl; Doreen Blessing; The Greens Family of Tennessee; Fran Reiter; Kelli Link; Elizabeth Belcher; and Damien Rodriguez and family. We hope we didn’t forget anyone!
Please consider helping these amazing kids in any way you can! For more information about A Kid’s Place, please visit: www.akidsplace.org.
For more information about joining the CSC or to volunteer, please contact CSC Chairs Lisa Esposito, (813) 223-6037 or lisa@lesposito.com, or Lara LaVoie, (813) 638-1357 or lmlavoie11@gmail.com.
