Best Buddies Dedicated to Enhancing Lives

Miami is home to one of the fastest growing and unique charitable institutions in America—Best Buddies, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to enhancing the lives of people with intellectual disabilities by providing opportunities for one-to-one friendships and integrated employment.
 
Founded in 1989 by Anthony Kennedy Shriver, Best Buddies is a vibrant organization that has grown from one original chapter to more than 1,200 middle school, high school, and college campuses across the country and internationally.  Best Buddies programs engage participants in each of the 50 United States. It has accredited international programs on six continents; with additional country programs under active development. The formal programs – Best Buddies Middle Schools, High Schools, Colleges, Citizens, e-Buddies and Jobs – positively impact more than 250,000 individuals.  It also is systematically implementing a 2010 initiative that will witness the organization’s continued significant growth, both domestically and overseas. Best Buddies volunteers annually contribute, at no cost to their communities, support services that equate to $61 million USD.
 
Even though Best Buddies has advanced tremendously in its short existence, many areas of the country and many regions of the world still lack programs to help people with intellectual disabilities become part of mainstream society. Its goal is to continue expanding nationwide and at the local community level, while more broadly engaging the global community through our programs
 
Dozens of people inspired by Best Buddies give credit to its founder Anthony Kennedy Shriver. Shriver’s goal wasto foster one-to-one friendships between people with and without intellectual disabilities. Recognizing the tremendous volunteer potential of university students, he first inspired his college peers to personally collaborate inexpanding the realm of opportunities that persons with intellectual disabilities should experience as fully integrated members of society.
 
Today, through Shriver's stewardship and entrepreneurial spirit, Best Buddies® has grown into a leading nonprofit entity with increasing international reach across six continents – creating mutually enriching one-to-one friendships and integrated employment opportunities for people with intellectual disabilities.
 
Best Buddies today positively impacts more than 250,000 participants. The organization is active in each of the 50 United States, and operates programs in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Egypt, Germany, Ghana, Hong Kong, Ireland, Kenya, Mexico, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, and the United Arab Emirates –with additional country programs in advanced phases of development.  By 2010, Best Buddies will continue to build on its successful volunteer base in all 50 States, further expand its accredited international programs to 50 countries and annually engage more than 500,000 people worldwide.
A graduate of Georgetown University, Shriver has been recognized for his work on behalf of Best Buddies International with such honors as the 2005 Excellence in Mentoring Award for Programmatic Leadership; the 2004 President's Call to Service Award by the President of the United States' Council on Service & Civic Participation; the 1999 Jefferson Award for Greatest Public Service by an Individual 35 Years or Younger; the 1998 Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award; and an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Loyola College. Shriver additionally is a founding member of the World Economic Forum's Young Global Leaders. 

Children’s Cancer Caring Center:
Quietly Doing a Big Job for Youngsters

It is one of those worthwhile institutions which daily is doing a major job of helping kids and families affected by cancer—and, although it is rather quiet about its good deeds, it has been around for four decades. The Children’s Cancer Caring Center (CCCC), headed by CEO Lee Klein, recently celebrated its 40th anniversary in Dade with a “Celebration of Life” luncheon, underwritten by Royal Caribbean International. The CCCC is considered the area’s leading center, providing free treatment to cancer-stricken children.
 
Today, with offices at the Cleveland Clinic in Weston (Broward) and a Dade unit at Baptist Hospital on Kendall Drive, “caring” is still the theme and the key to the organization’s success.
 
It is also the subject of the determination of one person to keep this charity going at as time when tsunamis, hurricane relief and other natural catastrophic happenings often get headlines while local charities get lost in the shuffle, Lee Klein keeps that message flowing to any that will listen.
 
Friends of CCCC say the story of CCCC is intertwined with the dedication of Klein—a one-time high fashion model. It was during a vacation in Miami Beach that Lee met future husband Norman Klein. Living in Florida presented new challenges to Lee, who immediately established herself in the fashion industry here and as a model, fashion show coordinator and later as official hostess of the Miss Universe Pageant. She also appeared in local theatrical productions.
 
But it was in 1956 that Lee began a new career as a volunteer worker for children’s causes. Nine years later, she accepted the greatest challenge of her life which began with the founding of an unprecedented free treatment clinic for cancer-stricken children. It really got underway when the clinic opened at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Medical Center. Today, as the organization has grown, Lee continues the work which was begun 40 years ago—helping children and their families while they go through the high stress and painful procedures in their life and death battle.
 
To become active in CCCC and to learn more about its good work, contact Lee Klein at 954-659-5416 or 305 932-1606.

HSC's 10th Anniversary January 25
 
 
The Miami nonprofit Human Services Coalition (HSC) will celebrate its 10th anniversary from 6 - 9pm on Wednesday, January 25 at its Truth & Hope Awards event in the Sky Lobby, Bank of America Tower, 100 SE 2nd St.
 
The cocktail reception will honor local leaders for their commitment to the community, including former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno and State Senator Frederica Wilson. The evening will feature musical performances by local artist Spam Allstars, Maryel Epps, Nicole Henry and Rose Max, food that reflects the cultural diversity of Miami, and the “win-win-win” Silent Auction with goods and services for nonprofits.
 
HSC launched Imagine Miami in 2004 to address the county’s high poverty rate and the shrinking middle class. ImagineMiami is a strategic planning project. Its mission is to move Miami from number one in poverty to number one in community prosperity by 2015. Leaders from eight sectors or areas of interest have been recruited to lead this effort.
 
Imagine Miami focuses on eight areas of interest: academia; arts, culture & heritage; business; community; government; media; philanthropy; and youth leadership. Each sector will engage people to reach out to get community input to share its goals, and conduct research relevant to the sector.
 
Growing The Middle Class, a study by the Washington D.C.-based Brookings Institution and funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, documented several alarming trends in the local economy: high levels of poverty: 18 percent in the county and 29 percent in the city live below the federal poverty level; and low-median income: Miami-Dade’s median household income is $35,966, far below the national median income of $41,994.