THE GLOUCESTER COUNTY BAR FOUNDATION

 

Another Successful Children's Breakfast.

 

Thanks to the help of Santa and his many elves (you know who you are), the annual Children's Breakfast has been another success.  For those of you who attended and helped out, thank you so much for your efforts.  For those of you who could not make it, below are some pictures of the good times had by all during the breakfast.  

 

Enjoy and have a great new year!  

 
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News Release December 21, 2009

Foster children celebrate special day
By Carly Romalino
cromalino@sjnewsco.com   
Published: December 21, 2008

Marissa Winner, 9, is having the "best Christmas ever," she said.

And the big event - Dec. 25 - is still days away. When Santa and Mrs. Claus wrangled the reindeer to Adelphia Restaurant in Deptford, yesterday, the foster and adopted children who attended the Gloucester County Bar Foundation's Children's Santa Breakfast received more than just a hearty meal and new toys. Marissa, a young horse-lover who is celebrating her first year of adoption by the Winners of Deptford, received everything she hoped for when Santa handed her a carefully wrapped package - toy horses and a gift certificate for horseback riding lessons. "A new family, horses, what more could you want?" said Denise Winner, Marissa's adoptive mother who has five other adopted children.

According to Cynthia Glover, Chairperson for the Gloucester County local chapter of Foster and Adopted Family Services, reuniting siblings is also among one of the top reasons the Gloucester County Bar Foundation hosts the annual event that features one-on-one time with Santa, and presents donated annually by Matt Blatt Auto in Glassboro. "This is where a lot of kids see their siblings because (Division of Youth and Family Services) can't always place them all together," said Glover, who has two adopted children, and another child in the process of adoption, in addition to four biological children. "For the children," Winner said, "It gives them a chance to see, 'it's not just me.'"

For seven years the Gloucester County Bar Foundation has hosted the event that, this year, drew about 140 area children and their caregivers or parents. Although Santa and Mrs. Claus were the headliners at this holiday event, The Phillie Phanatic and the Paul VI Choir also joined the festivities. And Christmas gifts were not in short supply. "(Matt Blatt) puts out over $3,000 every year for toys," said event organizer Ekaterine Eleftherious, Young/New Lawyer Trustee for the Gloucester County Bar Association, a sister organization to the Bar Foundation. "This is really for the kids," said Tim Winner, whose family that now includes Marissa, has attended for six years. "They really enjoy coming." "I love this year," Marissa said.