Kori Ellis
10-24-2005, 08:09 AM
Group to recognize Spur's wife, attorneys
Web Posted: 10/24/2005 12:00 AM CDT
Vincent T. Davis
Express-News Staff Writer
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/basketball/nba/spurs/stories/MYSA102405.3B.exchangeluncheon.860adc0.html
The San Antonio Kids Exchange will honor a person and an organization at a luncheon for raising awareness about child abuse in Bexar County.
Erin Barry, wife of San Antonio Spur Brent Barry, and the Bexar County Women's Bar Association and Foundation will be guests of honor from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Main Street Ballroom, located at 100 N. Main St.
The exchange was founded in 1997. The nonprofit group provides a setting in which children of divorce and separation disputes can meet with their parents under supervised visits.
For the past six years, Barry has worked as a caseworker for abused children in Chicago and Seattle. She worked at Chicago's Cook County Juvenile Court and at Childhave, a treatment and rehabilitation center for children who were abused or born drug-affected.
"It's a poison to society," Barry said of child abuse. "Children never get a chance."
After her husband, Brent, joined the Spurs, she planned to take a few months off from humanitarian projects. It was time to become familiar with a new city and help her son and husband with the transition.
But media reports of child abuse in the county made her reconsider.
She read about 4-year-old Jovonie Ochoa, who died of starvation on Christmas Day in 2003. After reading about the rise of child neglect cases in the city, she put her plans on hold.
"I called (state Rep.) Carlos Uresti and said, 'Sign me up. What can I do?'"
After attending a town hall meeting, she joined the executive committee of the Blue Ribbon Task Force. The team named her husband as an honorary chairman.
That led to the couple founding Barry's Blue Ribbon Assists, an offshoot of the task force, which operates under the Spurs Foundation.
The Barrys donated more than $4,000 in supplies to the Rainbow Room at Children Protective Services. They plan to recognize two caseworkers at each of the Spurs home games this season.
The kids exchange has chosen to laud a group of women who, like Barry, are passionate about preventing child abuse. They make their contributions through their legal expertise.
The women's bar association was formed in 1983 to unite female attorneys in the county and to provide a forum for women in the legal arena.
The organization designed a child support formula in 1984 that the Texas Supreme Court set as a model for the state.
The foundation, the charitable arm of the association, has helped several nonprofit groups that work with women and children's issues.
Mary Bullock, executive director of the kids exchange, said the foundation has raised nearly a million dollars to benefit these organizations.
"We hope to make this an annual affair," Bullock said. "And select those who value children and their mission is in line with that of the kids exchange — enriching lives of children in Bexar County."
Web Posted: 10/24/2005 12:00 AM CDT
Vincent T. Davis
Express-News Staff Writer
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/basketball/nba/spurs/stories/MYSA102405.3B.exchangeluncheon.860adc0.html
The San Antonio Kids Exchange will honor a person and an organization at a luncheon for raising awareness about child abuse in Bexar County.
Erin Barry, wife of San Antonio Spur Brent Barry, and the Bexar County Women's Bar Association and Foundation will be guests of honor from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Main Street Ballroom, located at 100 N. Main St.
The exchange was founded in 1997. The nonprofit group provides a setting in which children of divorce and separation disputes can meet with their parents under supervised visits.
For the past six years, Barry has worked as a caseworker for abused children in Chicago and Seattle. She worked at Chicago's Cook County Juvenile Court and at Childhave, a treatment and rehabilitation center for children who were abused or born drug-affected.
"It's a poison to society," Barry said of child abuse. "Children never get a chance."
After her husband, Brent, joined the Spurs, she planned to take a few months off from humanitarian projects. It was time to become familiar with a new city and help her son and husband with the transition.
But media reports of child abuse in the county made her reconsider.
She read about 4-year-old Jovonie Ochoa, who died of starvation on Christmas Day in 2003. After reading about the rise of child neglect cases in the city, she put her plans on hold.
"I called (state Rep.) Carlos Uresti and said, 'Sign me up. What can I do?'"
After attending a town hall meeting, she joined the executive committee of the Blue Ribbon Task Force. The team named her husband as an honorary chairman.
That led to the couple founding Barry's Blue Ribbon Assists, an offshoot of the task force, which operates under the Spurs Foundation.
The Barrys donated more than $4,000 in supplies to the Rainbow Room at Children Protective Services. They plan to recognize two caseworkers at each of the Spurs home games this season.
The kids exchange has chosen to laud a group of women who, like Barry, are passionate about preventing child abuse. They make their contributions through their legal expertise.
The women's bar association was formed in 1983 to unite female attorneys in the county and to provide a forum for women in the legal arena.
The organization designed a child support formula in 1984 that the Texas Supreme Court set as a model for the state.
The foundation, the charitable arm of the association, has helped several nonprofit groups that work with women and children's issues.
Mary Bullock, executive director of the kids exchange, said the foundation has raised nearly a million dollars to benefit these organizations.
"We hope to make this an annual affair," Bullock said. "And select those who value children and their mission is in line with that of the kids exchange — enriching lives of children in Bexar County."