During our Annual Meeting on March 9th, we were honored to have the opportunity to recognize our Volunteers of the Year and celebrate four decades of Advocates for Children. In honor of our 40th anniversary, we invited one of Advocate’s founders and our first Executive Director to take a stroll down memory lane and share stories of the first years of Advocates. Mrs. Nancy Newman, co-founder of Advocates for Children, and Mrs. Terry Nelson, the first Executive Director were joined on stage by their children to recall the first days of our organization.
Remarkably, Mrs. Newman was joined on the stage by her daughter Vicky Durham, who serves on our Capital Campaign Steering Committee, and Mrs. Nelson was joined by her son, Patrick Nelson, who has recently stepped into his new role as Chairman of the Advocate’s Board of Trustees. It was wonderful to celebrate the legacy of these two women and to see how their families’ commitment to children continues today.
Our Annual Meeting also gave us the opportunity to honor Mrs. Newman with the naming of our new home for youth experiencing homelessness, Newman House, in her honor. We were also grateful to have the chance to thank longtime supporters, Rob and Marian Hankinson by naming the new teen lounge in the Newman House, Hankinson Lounge.