2012 DEADLINE FOR CHARITY REQUESTS IS
MARCH 15, 2012. DOWNLOAD FORMS BELOW.

LUZERNE COUNTY BAR ASSOCIATION
CHARITABLE FOUNDATION, INC.

The Wilkes-Barre Law and Library Association founded and incorporated the Luzerne County Bar Association Charitable Foundation, Inc. in October 2003 with the intent to promote the Wilkes-Barre Law and Library Association and the image of the Luzerne County Lawyers.

The Luzerne County Bar Association Charitable Foundation will support charitable and humanitarian projects throughout Luzerne County, Pennsylvania to provide support for law related projects, publications and education.

The Foundation will enhance the public’s understanding and appreciation of the legal system in Luzerne County, ensure access to legal information and representation to all members of the Luzerne County community and foster good relations between members of the Bar, Judiciary and the public. The Foundation vows to do this among its other activities in furtherance of its charitable mission.

With Your Kindness...

Your donation can be made in honor of a loved one who has passed, someone who has reached a milestone in life, a wedding, graduation, a new practice, or you may make a donation to the Foundation as part of an estate plan.

With your kind and generous contributions, the Luzerne County Bar Association will make a donation to a non-profit organization annually. With this, the association hopes to better the community as well as enhance the image of the Luzerne County Lawyers.

All donations will be acknowledged to the donor and to the donee or donee’s family. The amount of the donation will not be listed. Also, the donor will

receive a tax deductible statement for his or her Income Tax Return, as donations to the Foundation are generally tax deductible.

With this year’s generous donations from contributors like you, the Foundation was able to assist the following extremely valuable charities of our community with grant donations:

Charities Selected for the 2011 Year

  Allied Services/John Heinz (Autism Golf Classic)

Alzheimer’s Association (Memory Walk)

Big Brothers/Big Sisters of the Bridge

Boys & Girls Club of America

Catholic Social Services Greater Hazleton Office

CEO/Weinberg NE Regional Food Bank

Earthly Angels Autism Fund of the Luzerne Foundation

Family Service Association of Wyoming Valley

F.M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts

Greater Wilkes-Barre Family YMCA

Jewish Community Center

Luzerne County Head Start

Mission of the Healing Eyes

North Penn Legal Services

Northeastern PA Philharmonic

Pittston Area Memorial Library

River of Common Fund of the Luzerne Foundation

SPCA of Luzerne County

United Charities, Inc. of Hazleton and Vicinity/United Children’s Homes, Inc.

Volunteers of America (of Wyoming Valley)

Wilkes-Barre Area League of Women Voters

Women with Children Program of Misericordia University

Wyoming Valley Chapter of the Red Cross

Wyoming Valley Habitat for Humanity

_________________

Charities are listed in alphabetical order.

The Foundation Board is elected for a two-year term.

Current Officers:

Sheila L. Saidman, Esq. President

Joseph F. Saporito, Esq. Vice President.

Joseph P. J. Burke III, Esq. Secretary-Treasurer

Board of Directors:

William F. Anzalone, Esq.

Joseph P. J. Burke III, Esq.

Matthew J. Carmody, Esq.

John P. Rodgers, Esq.

Sheila L. Saidman, Esq.

Joseph F. Saporito Jr., Esq.

Robert D. Schaub, Esq.

The Time to Begin...
There is never a better time than now to donate to the Luzerne County Bar Association. Your donation will benefit many; you, the lawyers and of course, the charities that the Association donates to. Please download the donation form and mail it to the Foundation.

Foundation Submission Process for Charities for a Consideration of a 2012 Donation
If your charity is an area charity of Luzerne County or is a charity with a connection to the Luzerne County community and is a registered 501 (c) non-profit corporation, and would like to be considered for an award in the 2012 year, please download the Chairty Donation Grant Application Form and mail it to the Foundation. The form must be received by the Secretary to Foundation no later than March 15th 2012.

Timetable of Awards
The Foundation will review all charitable requests received from March 15 th of the previous year up to and including March 15 th of the award year. All requests received on or before March 15, 2012 shall be reviewed by the Foundation Board. The charities selected by the Board as recipients for the 2012 year will then be presented with an award later in the year.

Maysie Bicycle Awards

In addition to its regular charity awards, the Foundation, with the help of the United Way of Wyoming Valley and the Jewish Community Center, will give away bicycles to area children as part of its Maysie Bicycle Program.

As an ongoing celebration of the most famous legal case to have its origins in Luzerne County, Erie Railroad Co. v. Harry Tompkins, the Luzerne County Bar Association Charitable Foundation, the charitable arm of the Wilkes-Barre Law & Library Association/the bar association of Luzerne County, has awarded bicycles to area children in honor of a promise once made to a little girl named Maysie.

The program, now in its fourth year, awards the bicycles with the help of the United Way of Wyoming Valley and the Jewish Community Center. This year the groups presented the bicycles at and through the Catholic Youth Center in Wilkes-Barre, where the children and their families were treated to an outdoor cookout. The bicycles were obtained and assembled with the help of the Plains Bike Shop. Cathy Faatz, Director of Community Involvement at United Way, supervised the program. In addition, Susan Kennedy, a Health Educator with the City Health Department was present this year and provided a talk to the kids on bicycle safety. The children were then fitted with safety helmets by Ms. Kennedy and Nicole Amos, also of the Health Department. The helmets were courtesy of the Department and the City of Wilkes-Barre.

Erie is one of the most important United States Supreme Court cases ever to be decided. The case began in Hughestown, where, in 1934, a young man, named Harry Tompkins, was walking along the railroad tracks and was struck by a swinging door from a refrigerator car of passing train.” Burke explained that as a result of his injury from the accident Harry Tompkins sued the Erie Railroad Company of the State of New York, which owned and operated the train.  

As part of the money that Harry Tompkins was awarded by a jury in the trial of the case in Federal Court in New York City, he promised his niece, Maysie, who was 8 years-old at the time, he would buy her a bicycle.  It was in the midst of the Great Depression and Maysie did not own a bike, nor did her parents have the money to buy her one. Maysie, however, never received the bicycle promised by her loving uncle, because her uncle never received his jury award.  On appeal, the United States Supreme Court reversed the decision of the trial court and the Court of Appeals, on the basis that the wrong law was applied in the case.

Federal general common law was applied at the lower level by the courts. In one swift stroke the United States Supreme Court declared that federal general common law did not exist, and that it had not existed at the time that the United States was formed under the Constitution in 1787. Its application by the courts for one hundred years had been legal fallacy. Moreover, for the first time in its history, the United States Supreme Court apologized for its own earlier decision that recognized this law, stating that it, the Court, had been wrong.

Erie is a case that sent shock waves through the legal community when it was announced in 1938, and it has remained controversial ever since, among lawyers, judges, and legal scholars. The case is still studied and dissected by every law student in first year law school for the important constitutional guidelines and insights announced by the Court, and for how the decision reset the balance of power between the Federal Courts and the individual states comprising the union of Republic of the United States.

For his part, Harry Tompkins’ verdict in the case was remanded to the lower court with the order that Pennsylvania state common law be applied. Applying Pennsylvania common law changed the outcome of the verdict. Ultimately, Harry Tompkins lost because of this legal technicality and constitutional law glitch.

The Foundation developed the Maysie Bicycle Program as a means to celebrate the importance of this famous case in a meaningful, tangible, way for the benefit of the community of Luzerne County, realizing that the legal decisions of our courts are not decided in a vacuum – they do affect people’s lives in real ways.

So, to celebrate the majesty of the Rule of Law and its living spirit, the Foundation sponsors the Maysie Bicycle Program each year.  

2010 Maysie Bicycles

Seated on Bicycles (from left to right):

Alexia Johnson, Ashanti McKinney, Kiana Everett, Breezanna Lynn Mixell, Kelci Smith, Jason Velasquez, Ricardo Quiroz, Asad Whitehead, Alexandro Maya, and Johan Rojas.

Standing (from left to right):

Cathy Faatz (United Way of Wyoming Valley, Director of Community Involvement), Rick Evans (Jewish Community Center, Executive Director), Betsy Bell Condron (Foundation Board Member), Atty. Robert D. Schaub (W-BLLA President), Atty. Sheila L. Saidman (Foundation President), Atty. Joseph F. Saporito Jr. (W-BLLA Vice President), Susan Kennedy (Wilkes-Barre Health Department, Health Educator), Nicole Amos (Wilkes-Barre Health Dept.), Mark Soprano (Catholic Youth Center, Associate Executive Director), Sean Miller (CYC Summer Camp Director), and Atty. Joe Burke (Foundation, Ex. Director).

To all the Kids who received bicycles as part of the 2010 Program, Enjoy!

Due to major changes in staff at the United Way, no bicycle giveaway has been scheduled for the 2011 year.