January 22^nd, 2009

For Immediate Release

Contact: Carolina Schwarz, 305.324.5678 (office)

                                             cschwarz@voices4.org

 

                                                                  MEDIA ADVISORY

 

First Annual Valentine’s Lingerie and Jewelry Fashion Show to Benefit

Voices For Children; Celebrates Romance In Style  

WHO/WHAT: Voices For Children Foundation, the fundraising arm of the 11th Judicial Circuit

                        Guardian Ad Litem Program, has announced it will benefit from the First Annual

                        Diamonds and Lace, a lingerie and diamond jewelry fashion show and luncheon

                        offering the perfect confluence of fun, entertainment, and philanthropy to celebrate

                        Valentine’s Day. The event, brainchild of Miami business leader Jeffrey Berkowitz,

                        is presented by Neiman Marcus, Coral Gables and Mandarin Oriental, Miami and 

                        will also offer its guests the opportunity to purchase the showcased jewelry for their

                        significant others, just in time for Valentine’s Day! A special appearance by Pulitzer

                        Prize winner Dave Barry will bring his acclaimed humor to the fundraiser. Proceeds

                        from the ticket sales and ten percent of the jewelry sales will be donated to Voices

                        For Children. Tables of 10 and individual seating are available at $5000 and $500

                        respectively. To RSVP, contact Paula Vargas at (305) 324-5678 ext. 13. Space is

                        limited. To see our animated evite, click here.

 

 

WHEN:           Friday, January 30th

                        Cocktails and registration: 11: 30 AM

                        Fashion Show and Luncheon: 12 PM

 

WHERE:         Mandarin Oriental, Miami

            500 Brickell Key Drive

            Miami, Florida 33131                

 

WHY:              The first Annual Diamonds and Lace brings a different and fun outlook at Valentine’s

                        Day, offering guests the opportunity to purchase jewelry for their significant others,

                        while enjoying a fashion show and top notch entertainment by the incomparable 

                        Dave Barry, while making their contribution to a worthwhile cause. This event opens

                        the year-long celebrations of Voices For Children’s 25th Anniversary of being the

                        one, big difference in the lives of abused, abandoned, and neglected children in the

                        community.

 

WHY:              Fashion Show

                        Personalities in attendance

 

In 2009, Voices celebrates 25 years of being the one, big difference in the lives of abused, abandoned, and neglected children. Be a part of it, visit www.voices4.org.

 

Voices For Children Foundation raises funds to support the 11^th Judicial Circuit Guardian Ad Litem Program in their efforts to provide abused, abandoned and neglected children in Miami-Dade with a voice in dependency court. Additionally, the Foundation raises funds to ensure that financial assistance and other resources are available to meet the children’s educational, health and social needs. For more information visit, www.voices4.org. Be a Voice.

 

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BY JENNIFER MOONEY PIEDRA
JMOONEY@MIAMIHERALD.COM
When Daily and Sergio Martinez went on their first date as teenagers, they talked about a subject taboo to most young couples.

”I asked him how he felt about adoption,” Daily recalled. “I knew then I always wanted to adopt and have a big family.”

Now, 23 years later, the couple has just that. Ten children — two biological and eight adopted — call them Mom and Dad.

The oldest is 22, a biomedical engineering student at Florida International University. The youngest is 2, in diapers and accustomed to spending each night in his parents’ bed.

The newest additions — Chris, 15, and his brother, Isaac, 13 — were adopted last month and feel blessed to be a part of a loving family.

Life for them has not been easy.

Their biological mother abandoned them twice. They were adopted by a couple who abused and neglected them. They spent many nights locked outside of their home, with no food and only the ground to sleep on. They were called ‘’stupid,” deprived of hugs and kisses and forced to watch their toys be destroyed with a sledgehammer.

Five of their other children were born to the same mother, an alcoholic and drug abuser who used cocaine and marijuana while pregnant.

The Martinezes feel blessed to open their hearts and their doors to so many children.

Besides Chris and Isaac, there is Sergio Jr., 22, Pablo, 16, Alexandria, 11, Rebekah, 10, Victoria, 8, Joshua, 6, Briana, 5, and Matthieu, 2.

”Our joy, our happiness is the kids,” said Sergio Martinez, 42.
“I wouldn’t trade my life for anything.”

But financially, it isn’t easy supporting a family of 12.

FINANCIAL BURDEN

Feeding the clan costs an average of $600 a week — and that’s taking advantage of coupons and in-store specials. A breakfast of scrambled eggs for everyone requires at least three dozen eggs.

The family dines out once a week on Thursdays, when the children can eat free at Piccadilly cafeteria.

With day-care costs out of reach, the two youngest stay home with Dad, who owns his own business breeding birds. Daily, 41, works as an executive assistant at VITAS Hospice in downtown Miami.

The family — nominated for Wish Book by the Voices for Children Foundation — shares one outdated computer, which has cords running through a hallway from one room to another. Having additional computers for homework and papers would be nice.

GOING AWAY

But their Wish Book request for the holiday is to do something they have never done as a family: Go on a vacation together.

They dream of traveling to Orlando and spending time at the theme parks — especially Universal Studios.
Sergio and Daily wish they could take their children, but cannot afford the travel expenses, including hotel rooms, food and park tickets.

”There’s so many of us,” Daily said. “It’s been hard, impossible, for us to do.”

For Chris, the trip would be especially meaningful.

In his previous home, he was excluded from most family vacations. His adoptive parents would admit him into a group home while they went out-of-town.

”They wouldn’t let me go on trips,” he said. “I missed the vacations.”

But now, he wants to celebrate his new life with his new family.

”It would be a new experience,” he said. “We could go on roller coasters and water rides.”
Chris wasn’t always such a happy kid.

He and his biological brother, Isaac, spent nine years living with a family in Country Club of Miami.

The two were mistreated, neglected, unloved.

Last year, the boys were turned over to His House Children’s Home, a Miami Gardens facility that provides neglected children with a home-like environment.

It was there they met the Martinezes.

”When I saw them, I wished those were my parents,” Chris said.

Daily and Sergio — and the rest of their kids — were equally as fond of Chris and Isaac.

In August, the two boys moved into the family’s West Miami-Dade home. On Nov. 15, National Adoption Day, they became Martinezes.

It was a dream-come-true for the boys. They had their own beds, clothes and home-cooked meals.
They also got a a gift even more precious.

”I love being part of such a big family,” Isaac said. “My mom and dad changed our lives.”

BY CARLI TEPROFF
CTEPROFF@MIAMIHERALD.COM

Rodquella ”Quella” Atkinson plays a mean game of Mancala, a contest of skill involving marbles. She loves to braid her dolls’ hair. And she admits she can eat anything in sight, especially if it’s sweet.

It was about a year ago that none of that was possible. The precocious 11-year-old’s brown eyes turned yellow with jaundice; her stomach bloated. Quella’s liver was failing, and she was given only two months to live.

But on Mother’s Day 2007 she received a new liver.
Her mother did not fare as well.

Though Quella’s health slowly improved, her home life deteriorated with her mom’s drug addiction. Along with three siblings, Quella was removed from her mother’s care and now lives in a foster home. She stuffed her clothes into two plastic bags — just enough for the day or two she expected to be gone.
”My mother got really sick,” said Quella.

One night soon turned into a year. But Quella — old enough to have a crush on ”Troy” from Disney’s High School Musical, but with enough childhood left to play with Dora the Explorer — kept up her hopes of going home.

Her mother, Lechant Smith, has since completed a one-year drug treatment program with The Village and likely will be reunited with her children in January.

”After everything Rodquella has endured, she wants nothing more than to feel like a normal kid this holiday season by opening wrapped gifts on Christmas morning,” wrote Elsie Morales, communications coordinator for the Voices For Children Foundation, which nominated Quella for The Miami Herald Wish Book.

Smith said she has a room waiting for Quella and would love to see it filled with “girly stuff.”

”It has been really rough on her,” Smith said. “I wish I could give her anything she wants.”

The home health aide said she has been working odd jobs, but has not yet found steady work. She said by the time she pays the bills, there is not much left for extras.

”She’s not the type of child who asks for everything in sight,” Smith said.

On a recent weeknight Quella sat on the couch playing Mancala by herself.

”I lost all the pieces,” she said, unphased that Mancala is a two-person game. “I always win this way.”
Sitting across the way was Dorothy Trimble, Quella’s foster mother.

”She is always doing for others,” Trimble said. “It would fill my heart to see others do for her.”
Quella said she can’t wait to go home to her mother and have her own room. The one thing she wishes for this Christmas is a computer so she can do her homework. And, yes, any High School Musical or Dora the Explorer toys.

She also dreams of going to college and becoming a surgeon, paying back those who helped her.
Rhonda Davis, Quella’s caseworker with the Department of Child and Families, said in the year she has known Quella she has never seen her mad.

”She is always smiling and trying to make others happy,” Davis said. “I can’t think of a more deserving child.”