Last Wednesday, October 9, over 400 of KIND’s pro bono lawyer and other supporters came together at the Ziegfeld Ballroom in New York City for KIND’s Annual Gala celebration that honored some of our key partners: Reed Smith LLP, Sidley Austin LLP, Intel Corporation, and Pfizer, Inc. More broadly, the event celebrated KIND and all those who support our work to protect unaccompanied children.
Art and Words from our Clients
While art by KIND clients was projected onto wall screens around the dining room – from the KIND Client Traveling Art Exhibit Seeking Safety, Creating Change – singer Emily King opened the evening and was followed by our emcee, CNN Legal Analyst and Principal of the Raben Group Elliot Williams. After welcoming the guests, Williams introduced a video featuring KIND clients, and then brought Alejandra, a KIND client to the stage. Alejandra fled Honduras, where she feared for her life, several years ago. “After coming to the United States for safety,” she said, “I found great support in KIND, which to this day continues to help me with my legal case and so much more, including helping me to find my voice and the confidence to speak to you tonight.”
KIND’s Annual Allegiance and Innovation Awards and the Juan P. Osuna Memorial Award
KIND President Wendy Young reflected on how KIND has grown to be an international organization and how our work to support unaccompanied children is more important than ever in a world increasingly hostile to immigrants and refugees. “Our work helping children to be safe and happy, rather than hopeless, is a counterpoint to the world’s turbulence,” she said. “Together, we offer displaced children the most valuable gift of all—a caring hand, a chance to be heard, and an opportunity to enjoy what all children should be able to enjoy—stability, safety, and hope. To experience the joy of childhood when all things are possible, and a bright future is before them.”
Board Chair Pamela Passman then spoke and presented our Allegiance Awards, which honors firms that have gone above and beyond in supporting KIND’s clients and our mission, to Reed Smith LLP and Sidley Austin LLP. Our Innovation Award, which recognizes a corporate partner for its efforts to extend corporate citizenship to promote pro bono legal representation for unaccompanied children, went to Intel Corporation and Pfizer, Inc.
KIND Executive Vice President and Chief Program Officer Hardy Vieux presented the Juan P. Osuna Memorial Award. Juan was a senior immigration legal adviser in the Justice Department who made a lasting professional and personal impact on immigrant and refugee children’s issues, as well as on all those around him. This year, the Juan P. Osuna Memorial Award went to Wendy Wylegala, KIND’s Senior Director of Legal Strategy, Cory Shindel, KIND’s Deputy Director of Policy, and Catherine Weiss, Of Counsel at the Lowenstein Center for the Public Interest, and a longtime partner and fierce advocate for unaccompanied children.
Following a short video featuring KIND’s international work, Williams facilitated a panel discussion with Kirsty Thomson, KIND Senior Vice President and Regional Director of Europe, UNHCR Deputy Representative to the USA and Caribbean Jon Hoisaeter, and Judge Rosemary Barkett, Former Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme Court and member of KIND’s Keeping Kids Safe Leadership Council. They discussed why KIND’s work is more important than ever in different global contexts, the shared needs of unaccompanied children wherever they are in the world, and the need for increasing action to protect them.
Following closing remarks by Wendy Young and Pamela Passman, a performance by Broadway singer Paulo Szot closed out the evening.
Thank you to all those who attended and all the pro bono lawyers who support our work.
