Pat Sheehy, representing Governor George Pataki
Yolanda Robinson, representing Westchester District Attorney Jeanine Pirro
Jim Cavanaugh, Supervisor of the Town of Eastchester
Richard Halevy, representing Mayor John Spencer of the City of Yonkers
Robert Ferrito, President of the Board of Education of the City of Yonkers
Aaron Britvan, Chairperson of the NYS Bar Association’s Adoption Committee
Tim Jaccard, Founder and Director of The A.M.T. Children of Hope Foundation
Introduction
The purpose of The Children First Foundation’s annual benefit concert is to raise funds and public awareness that will support and promote adoption as a positive choice for women with unwanted pregnancies or newborns.
The A.M.T. Children of Hope Baby Safe Haven Program -- which was approved by the NYS Legislature and signed into law by Governor Pataki under The Abandoned Infant Protection Act in July, 2000 – helps desperate young women to safely and anonymously abandon their unwanted newborns (up to 5 days old) without facing criminal prosecution. Unwanted newborns are then entrusted to reputable adoption agencies and placed with loving adoptive families.
Thanks to this state-based program that protects both desperate young women and their unwanted newborns, eleven (11) babies in the year 2000, and thirteen (13) babies in the year 2001, were successfully rescued in the New York area and placed for adoption. As Tim Jaccard, Founder and President of the A.M.T. Children of Hope Foundation, explains, “The whole purpose of this effort is to make it so not one single baby is ever thrown in a garbage pail again.”
Generous CFF members and supporters have made it possible for the 2002 Charity Concert for Adoption to donate $2,000 to the A.M.T. Children of Hope Foundation to help them promote and support Westchester County’s first Children of Hope Safe Haven located at St. John’s Riverside Hospital in Yonkers.
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Pat Sheehy: Officially representing Governor George Pataki.
(Ms. Sheehy is the Regional Director of the NYS Office of Children and Family Services. Her office oversees adoption efforts in an area that spans from Long Island up through the entire Hudson Valley to Peekskill.)
"It is my pleasure to represent our good governor, George Pataki, here today. Really what he wanted me to do is to come here today and to thank Elizabeth and Tim for the fine work they are doing.
"As Tim says, when government and bureaucracy get involved, often times we can slow down the process, so we really depend on individuals like Elizabeth and Tim who come to the forefront and see the opportunity and make things happen.
"So on behalf of our Governor, thank you very much."
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Yolanda Robinson: Officially representing Westchester District Attorney Jeanine Pirro. (Ms. Robinson is the Community Justice Coordinator for the Westchester District Attorney’s Office.)
"Good afternoon, everyone. On behalf of District Attorney Pirro, I’d like to welcome you and thank you for being a part of this magnificent event and wonderful concert that The Children First Foundation is putting on. Because when you give back, you get back, and that’s what it is all about here. It’s about saving babies. District Attorney Pirro is very thrilled with the partnership that was established with Tim Jaccard and the things that you do. You are a godsend.
"Saving babies is certainly in the District Attorney’s mission as well as keeping all Westchester residents safe.
"So, on behalf of District Attorney Pirro, I welcome you and thank you very much."
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Mr. Jim Cavanaugh, Supervisor of the Town of Eastchester.
(The Children First Foundation is proudly located in Eastchester, NY, the Birthplace of the Bill of Rights of the United States.)
"Eastchester is very pleased to have this wonderful organization headquartered in our community.
"One of the things I have had the occasion to do as Town Supervisor – three times now – is write character reference letters for couples I know reasonably well who were adopting. Through this process I have come to know how complicated the adoption process is, just by talking to these couples.
"So when I got this invitation to be here (…) I thought, 'what a great organization to have in our town.' Because I have certainly seen -- from the end of the adoptive couples – how their lives have changed for the better by having a young son or daughter. And I can only imagine how much that young child’s life has changed by having the opportunity that adoption can bring.
"So, I am very pleased to have you here and we want to do everything we can to have The Children First Foundation thrive.
"And the Safe Haven Law also sounds like one of the best things that have ever happened to any community. The thought that we won’t hear these horrible news reports about babies being found in places where babies ought not to be; that instead we will hear about babies finding loving families: that again just seems to be an extraordinary thing.
"So, anything the Town can do to help make this group thrive is what we want to do."
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Richard Halevy: Officially representing Mayor John Spencer of the City of Yonkers.
(Mr. Halevy is the Executive Director of Public Affairs and Community Relations in the City of Yonkers.)
"Good afternoon. Thank you. I am just here on behalf of Mayor Spencer to congratulate Tim and Elizabeth on the marvelous work they are doing.
"Not a day for long speeches, but thinking about what I might say on the way over, I realized that the most precious gift we have in this world is the gift of life. And it’s wonderful that we now have people like Elizabeth and Tim providing alternatives for young women who don’t want their children.
"And I also want the folks here to know that we now have a Safe Haven in the City of Yonkers located at St. John’s Riverside Hospital. It’s the first one in Westchester County, and it’s already being used.
"So anything that Mayor Spencer and the City of Yonkers can do to support Tim’s and Elizabeth’s efforts, that’s what we are here for. Thank you."
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Robert Ferrito, President of the Yonkers Board of Education, on behalf of children.
"Good afternoon. I know it doesn’t look like it, but I have 26,000 children and I represent all of them in the City of Yonkers. From my experience on the Board and working with children, I have seen the impact that they will have in our community.
"How could there be any other alternative but to 'choose life?' So I commend Elizabeth and Tim for spearheading this (pro-adoption effort) and taking us where we have to go: which is to provide an alternative and help people choose life.
"So I commend you and thank you for taking care of our children."
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Aaron Britvan, Chairperson of the NYS Bar Association’s Adoption Committee. Mr. Britvan is the author of the pamphlet, Adoption in New York, which is currently distributed by the NYS Bar Association. He is a member of the Legal Committee of the National Council on Adoption, and offers pro bono work as counsel and legal advisor to the Adoptive Parents Committee of the State of New York and to Family Focus Adoption Services, a New York State licensed agency servicing “hard to place” children in New York State.
"It is my pleasure to be here. This October will commemorate 37 years since my oldest daughter came into my family when she was 3 days old and it was through adoption. Thereafter I was blessed with two additional biological children. Like that TV program, 'All My Children,' they are all my children.
"How to explain the feelings of having a mixed family of adopted and biological children? It came out in a movie that starred Glenn Close and dealt with adoption. And I remember what the attorney (in the movie) told Glenn and which is something I have lived with ever since: that having a child biologically is a wonderful act of nature, and having a child by adoption is a wonderful act of God. That’s what it is all about. And all of us are God’s helpers.
"When an attorney comes to me and says, ‘How do you become an adoption attorney?’ I say, ‘Well, the first thing you do is adopt a child.’ And that gets you on the track. Although I have been practicing now for 40 years, about 25 of those years have been exclusively adoption-related. It’s a profession. It’s a livelihood. But Elizabeth and Tim do this purely out of the goodness of their hearts… their love for people and their love for children. And although we are all God’s helpers, I want to tell you, Tim, you’re on the fast track for sainthood. What you are doing, and what Elizabeth is doing, is really terrific. Keep up the good work and I am glad to be a part of it."
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Tim Jaccard, Founder and President of The A.M.T. Children of Hope Foundation.
"My name is Tim Jaccard and I am the Director and the Founder of the A.M.T Children of Hope Baby Safe Haven Program. Actually it was the A.M.T. Children of Hope Burial Foundation in 1998 when I first established it. The reason was that we had a rash of unusual situations in the New York Metropolitan area. Over a period of three years I had the bad experience of having to actually bury 36 newborn infants. They were alive. They took a breath. They had a death certificate. Those were the things I had to deal with. Over that period of time, I realized that it had to stop. The only way to stop it is to be able to make a change. One person did make a change, and then two people made a change, and then three. And before we knew it we had a movement across this country to form what was known as Baby Safe Havens. You have 'Baby Moses' in Texas, 'Secret Safe Place' in Alabama, and the Children of Hope Foundation’s 'Baby Safe Havens' in New York.
"I established a Crisis Center 'to start to stop' this from happening. I wrote and presented a bill but it was rejected. I did not know how to write bills, and as Aaron (Britvan) knows, it was very hard to get legislation. It was only with the power of Rep. Nancy Larraine Hoffman in Syracuse, who was willing to sponsor the bill, that it was finally approved and moved forward.
"In 1999, when the Crisis Center first opened we had roughly 430 some-odd phone calls on the crisis phone line. Last year was a phenomenal year. We had 3,411 phone calls last year. We had 129 young women that needed immediate crisis intervention. We put 23 babies up for adoption through traditional adoption agencies; and rescued 13 babies alive, no questions asked, non-bureaucratically as I refer to them.
"I noticed that we had to spread even further. That’s when we started opening up to Manhattan, Queens, the Bronx, Staten Island, and Suffolk County, with Nassau County as our focal point. I have Paul and Marisol Morales, the Bronx/Westchester Directors of our organization, here with me today to let you know that they now handle Westchester, too.
"Friday was another successful day this year. We’ve had actually 5 babies so far: 3 put up for adoption and 2 rescued safely, non-bureaucratically. This most recent one was Friday. A young girl called on the crisis line. Not wanting her child and hiding that pregnancy, she walked into the Morris Heights Medical Health Center, which is a birthing center in the Bronx. She left the baby in the bathroom on a changing table. The nurse was notified, the baby was rescued alive, and the mother walked out without anybody knowing about it. That’s what it’s about. It’s about rescuing the babies and not having to bury the babies.
"Last year was a success, as I say. We went from burying an average of 18 to 20 babies a year, the previous years, to last year we had the sad event of burying 4 newborn infants but rescuing 13 babies alive. So now we are seeing the changes. This is what it’s about here. Organizations and adoption agencies are beginning to come forward and not be threatened by a new law that would allow a young woman to quietly relinquish a baby without a medical history, without a past, without any facts, but yet alive. It is now showing that we can do this and that it is working.
"So, again, thank you for listening to my speech and enjoy the concert."
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