ChamberlainD'Amanda Partners with St. Joseph's Villa to Foster Joy of Reading

AUGUST 24, 2005—When St. Joseph’s Villa students start back to school September 7th, they will have their first chance to visit a beautiful new Library and Media Center created through a generous partnership with the law firm of ChamberlainD’Amanda.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held to celebrate the library’s opening on Tuesday, August 30, 2005, at 11:30 a.m.*

The library will serve 90 boys and girls in the Villa’s residential program who live on the agency’s main campus and attend the Villa school during the day. Its purpose is to help Villa students discover the joy of reading, which contributes to greater academic success and strengthens their chance of a positive future. The library’s official opening to students in September will be on the eve of International Literacy Day, September 8, 2005. The day was established by the United Nations in 1965 to encourage organizations and governments throughout the world to “consider the status of adult and child literacy, note progress and identify work still to be done.”

“ChamberlainD’Amanda has been serving Rochester for over 125 years by doing what’s right for the community,” says Edward C. Radin, ChamberlainD’Amanda’s Managing Partner. “Today the firm is demonstrating its commitment to some of Rochester’s at-risk children by creating a library and filling it with books that will get them excited about reading. We appreciate the opportunity to work with the Villa and develop a permanent benefit that will have a lasting impact on children who are working to overcome challenges in their lives. This project was ideal for us because we believe in the power of reading and the ability of all children to succeed if they have the support and opportunity.”

ChamberlainD’Amanda not only provided funding to transform a classroom in the Campus School into a warm and inviting library, but also gave a donation to fill the library with multi-genre novels, poetry collections, biographies and periodicals. Additionally, the firm is conducting a book drive to supplement the library’s collection. All of the books have been selected by Villa teachers to appeal to teens from diverse backgrounds and abilities, and support the Villa’s special education curriculum.

“I’m very excited to have this library available to our students,” says Stuart Weiss, Villa Campus School Principal. “So many Villa kids have been slow readers, have looked upon reading as a chore, or have had limited exposure to books. This is a real chance for them to discover books they love, and realize there’s so much more to reading than textbooks. Reading opens doors to success, and that’s just what this library will do for Villa kids.”

The new library also represents the foundation of a strategic alliance between ChamberlainD’Amanda and St. Joseph’s Villa that will include a joint public awareness campaign to be launched this fall, for which KrausCreative of Rochester has provided communication strategy direction and support.

If you are interested in donating books to the ChamberlainD’Amanda book-drive for Villa students, please contact Kimberlee Dumitrescu at (585) 295-4094.

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ChamberlainD’Amanda is a full-service law firm, serving the needs of individuals, businesses and labor unions in Rochester and Syracuse. With a 125-year tradition of practicing law, the firm takes a non-traditional approach, assigning each client a diverse team of legal experts. A staff of more than 30 attorneys is large enough to offer breadth and depth and small enough to treat each and every client as an individual.

St. Joseph’s Villa cares for kids in crisis. Whether the crisis is related to abuse or neglect, mental health issues, loss of a loved one, substance abuse or other issues, the Villa works to help kids heal and start again in a positive direction. The nonprofit agency works with more than 1,500 kids a year through a network of community programs including residential treatment, educational, preventive, group homes, chemical dependency and asset development.