Inside this issue:
- Community Highlights: This Holiday Season It’s All About Shoes For Students in South Florida
- A Page From My Playbook: Keeping Your Marriage In Tact After an Arrest
- Fun & Festive Holiday Butter Cookie Recipe
- WIN FREE Movie Passes + 15 Holiday Movies That Never Get Old
- Holiday Greetings from the Rossen Family
Cover Story
Community Highlights: This Holiday Season It’s All About Shoes For Students in South Florida
The title of our newsletter is Make GOOD Things Happen—and we’re so proud to announce that one of our former interns is doing just that.
Alicia Zweig, who interned with the Rossen Law Firm back in 2011 while still a law student at Nova Southeastern University’s Shepard Broad Law Center, has gone on to do some incredible things.
She is now a successful personal injury attorney at Lesser, Lesser, Landy & Smith PLLC in Boca Raton, and is also co-founder, vice president and secretary of In Jacob’s Shoes, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded by the Zweig family in loving memory of her brother, Jacob.
The organization, which was founded to carry on her brother’s legacy of helping others in need, provides new and gently used shoes, backpacks, school supplies and athletic gear to local children in need and also provides grants for camp, aftercare, sports and enrichment programs. “We’re a very local, grassroots charity focused on the South Florida community,” says Alicia.
“Every fall we give over 20,000 pairs of shoes to children in need for back to school.” Curious, we had to ask her, why shoes?
“People overlook the need for shoes. It may seem like a very small thing, but it can have a big effect on a child’s self esteem, and can make the difference between them being allowed to attend school.” While other charities also provide shoes, they are often old and worn out.
“We have a warehouse in Margate where we clean and refurbish donated shoes. Many organizations don’t have time to do this. But we want to provide kids with shoes that are either brand new, or look brand new.”
The original idea for shoes miraculously came from her late brother, Jacob himself. Jacob volunteered with a program called Parkland Soccer buddies, which provides quality sports programs for children with special needs. After hispassing, Alicia’s family still wanted to help, so they asked the organization what they needed, and they needed soccer cleats.
That’s when her family realized there was an unmet need for shoes. In addition to providing shoes, the organization also seeks to provide children with a choice. Every year it sets up back to school events with pop-up shoe stores where each child gets a personal shopper to help them pick out the pair of shoes they want.
“Sometimes choosing which pair of shoes they want is the only choice these kids get, so we want to give them an empowering experience.”
This year In Jacob’s Shoes hit a new milestone, having given away over 100,000 pairs of shoes since its founding back in 2009. Starting today, for every referral we receive, the Rossen Law Firm will be donating one pair of shoes to a child in need.
