With Kids in Mind

Shari Shapiro, executive director of Kids in Crisis in Greenwich, and the Tow Foundation of New Canaan were honored with the 2011 Fairfield County Champion of Children award during a Sunshine in February celebration hosted by the Center for Children’s Advocacy at Trump Parc in Stamford. The annual awards are presented to recognize those who support Connecticut’s most vulnerable, children and youth who often fall through the cracks of the state’s child welfare, education, juvenile justice and health-care systems.

About 150 supporters, advocates and members of the legal profession turned out for the cocktail reception, which was catered by Stamford’s Fairway Market and BevMax Stamford.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY SELLISPHOTO.COM

Martha Stone, executive director of the CCA; Shari Shapiro, executive director of Kids in Crisis; Emily Tow Jackson, executive director of the Tow Foundation; and Leonard Tow, the Tow Foundation's founder

Stamford attorneys Kathy Emmett of Emmett & Glander and David Golub of Silver, Golub & Teitell flank Martha Stone.

Abby Anderson, executive director of the Connecticut Juvenile Justice Alliance in Bridgeport; Trevor Roach, captain of the Stamford Fire and Rescue Department; and Terri Drew, director of the Youth Services Bureau of Stamford, Attorney Edwin Colon of the CCA’s Teen Legal Advocacy Project with Leslie Crutchfield, author of Forces for Good and Do More than Give

Fairway Market’s Bill Sanford with Jackie Donovan and Lori Levy

Javier Soegaard, case manager for the CCA’s Truancy Court Prevention Project; his mother, Libby Soegaard; Eddie Meyer of PricewaterhouseCoopers in Stamford; and attorney Kathryn Meyer of the CCA’s Educational Success Project