Vanessa Cohn
Over the past three months, Arnstein & Lehr’s Tampa office provided financial support to the Akilah Institute for Women, Weinberg Village’s ‘Eight Over Eighty’ Awards, and Rotary Club of Tampa’s Gift of Life Gala. Partner Vanessa N. Cohn led the review committee process to select the recipients.
Akilah Institute for Women is an organization founded in Tampa to help women in Rwanda break the poverty cycle. Women in Akilah’s programs find meaningful employment or become entrepreneurs by gaining skills, knowledge and confidence. The Institute celebrated their inaugural commencement ceremony over the summer with 39 graduates and 100 percent job placement. Our donation will sponsor women working toward education goals this year.
The Tampa office helped Weinberg Village recognize eight individuals, each 80 years or older, who have dedicated their time, talents, and lives to helping others in our community through the annual Eight Over Eighty awards. Senator Helen Gordon Davis, Ethel Feinstein, Art Meier, Frank Rosenblatt, Morris Schonwetter, Hinks Shimberg, Howard Sinsley and Bernice Wolf were inducted into the Weinberg Village Senior Hall of Fame on November 18.
Funds raised through Eight Over Eighty enhance Weinberg Village’s assisted living facility and provide needed subsidies and supportive services to seniors in the Tampa community. Ms. Cohn serves on the assisted living facility’s Board of Directors.
The Tampa office also contributed to The Rotary Club of Tampa’s Gift of Life Gala. Funds raised help children with life-threatening heart conditions in need of cardiac surgery but financially unable to have it. The Tampa event is part of global effort started in 1975 by Rotarians in Long Island, New York, and the funds raised by the event are matched by contributions from Rotary International.
More than 120 children have received life-saving surgeries as a result of the Gift of Life Gala since 1996. In 2011, the Tampa Gift of Life Gala enabled 16 kids to have critical surgeries, provided training to surgeons, and purchased vital medical equipment.
