Safe Haven for Abused Children made Possible By
Lazydays^® Partners Foundation

January 9, 2007 –The following is based on a true story: Six year old Alexis has spent all day in the emergency room with a stranger. An investigator with the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office removed her from her home, after finding her bruised, living in squalid conditions with trash, rotting food and feces in every room. Alexis is frightened, confused, and a medical exam shows signs of sexual abuse. It’s 10 p.m., and the investigator doesn’t have a place to take Alexis. There are no foster homes available. Finally, at midnight, the investigator finds a home that can take her in, but only for a few days.

There are many long nights like this where the Sheriff’s Office tries to process an average of 70 children a month in Hillsborough County. This is unacceptable for the child that must wait and the investigator that struggles to find a home, yet, it is a reality. These children need safe beds, stability and love during such a traumatic and frightening time in their lives. Hillsborough County presently does not have a temporary, emergency shelter to house children entering the foster care system. As a result siblings are often separated because sufficient room is not available to keep them together. As a community, Kids Charity of Tampa Bay and Lazydays^® Partners Foundation believe we can do better.

Lazydays^® Partners Foundation, (“the Foundation”) the philanthropic arm of Lazydays^® RV Center, (“Lazydays”), has committed $400,000 to Kids Charity of Tampa Bay, a non-profit organization, towards the construction of a four home, 48-bed emergency shelter which will be built on a five-acre plot of land located in Brandon. The Foundation raises funds primarily through contributions from approximately 500 Lazydays^® employees. The Foundation will present $100,000 of its $400,000 pledge on Monday, January 15, 2007 at the Lazydays^® RV Center Café at 9:00 am. Don Wallace, founder of Lazydays^® and a prominent local philanthropist, is scheduled to speak at the presentation along with Dottie Berger MacKinnon, Chair of Kids Charity of Tampa Bay, and a representative from the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.

Kids Charity of Tampa Bay is working in partnership with the Sheriff’s Office, Department of Children & Families Services, Hillsborough Kids, Inc., and individual community leaders to build this emergency shelter. Children recently removed from high risk situations will be placed in this child-friendly, safe haven for a maximum of 30 days. The shelter will assess their medical, psychological and personal needs without requiring the children to be split from their siblings and shuttled to remote areas of the County. A classroom will be set aside for on site schooling as well. The shelter will help eliminate the bottle neck of children needing homes until their cases can be determined by the courts.

“Brandon is simply the best location to serve all of the children in Hillsborough County,” stated Dottie Berger MacKinnon. “We are excited that the Lazydays^® Partners Foundation has kicked this project off with such a fabulous start. They have always been such strong supporters of the children in our community and we couldn’t be more pleased to call them our friends and partners in this campaign.”
Lazydays^® Partners Foundation was formed as a non profit corporation by the employees of Lazydays^® in order to enhance their ability to support children’s causes. The mission of the Foundation is to “Measurably Change the Lives of Children by Instilling Hope, Inspiring Dreams and Empowering Them with Education.” The Foundation is funded primarily through payroll deductions pledged by employees of Lazydays^® RV Center. For the past several years, the employees of Lazydays^® have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for children’s charities in the Tampa Bay area. The Foundation is led by a board of directors consisting solely of Lazydays^® employees from departments across the company. Directors were chosen who have demonstrated leadership within the company and a commitment to charitable causes within the community. The Foundation has also received contributions from Lazydays’ customers and business partners who are also interested in supporting causes benefiting at-risk children. For more information, or to make a contribution, please visit ldpf.org.
Kids Charity of Tampa Bay, Inc. is an organization of concerned individuals whose mission is to improve the quality of life for foster children and foster families. This group of community leaders determined that our community needed an organization that could focus on areas of service that are less directly funded by the state or federal government, yet still provide a viable service in areas of critical need and life improvement. Kids Charity is involved in several efforts of direct service for children that have been abused, neglected, or abandoned. Raising funds and developing resources, both in-kind and monetary, that directly affects these critical areas of need is the primary focus of Kids Charity of Tampa Bay, Inc. For more information, please visit kidscharitytb.com.