Justice Teaching trainers hit the road: 110 new volunteers were prepared for the classroom.

This summer, judges and attorneys alike rallied toward the Justice Teaching goal of having an attorney or judge volunteer paired with every public school in Florida.

Live training sessions were again conducted by Justice R. Fred Lewis and Annette Boyd Pitts, executive director of the Florida Law Related Education Association, at three locales across the state.

The first training was hosted by Hillsborough County Court Judge Raul Palomino at the Edgecomb County Courthouse in Tampa. Judge Palomino provided a complimentary luncheon to all presenters and trainees. During the luncheon, volunteers Kenneth Tinkler, Renee Pelzman-Ruska, and Kimberly Lee shared with the trainees their positive experiences as Justice Teaching volunteers.

Four employees from the public school system, Tony Gentile, Robin Jackson, Rupert Warren, and Karen Wilkins, also spoke about the valuable impact of Justice Teaching on their students and schools.

Another training session, held at the Broward County Courthouse in Ft. Lauderdale, was arranged and hosted by 17th Judicial Circuit Court Judge Thomas Lynch IV. After the training, the new volunteers moved to Cinema Paradiso, the only full-time art house theatre in Broward County, for a social reception. Coral Gables attorney Eli Kaplan provided hors d'oeuvres for the event and shared his Justice Teaching experiences. Also speaking about Justice Teaching during the reception were attorneys Laurie Marks, Kathleen Bonczyk, and Todd Clarke, as well as teachers Melissa Sirin, Wendy Wuenker, and Ronna Brown.

A third training session, organized and hosted by Seventh Judicial Circuit Court Judge Margaret Hudson, with assistance from the Volusia County Bar Association, was held at the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Daytona Beach. After the training, a reception arranged by VCBA Executive Director Kathie Selover was held in the gallery of the museum.

Seventh Judicial...