Chesser & Barr Attorneys, with offices in Crestview and Shalimar, is donating Amazon gift cards for Christmas to 76 teenagers being served by the Okaloosa Guardian ad Litem Program this year. A spokesperson for the Firm said that “Being able to support 26 teens in Crestview and 50 teens in Fort Walton Beach was a huge accomplishment. The program continues to grow each year and we are fortunate enough to continue to meet our goal to provide for these children year after year.”
Chesser & Barr raises money all year by collecting $5 from employees who want to wear jeans to work on Friday and support Guardian ad Litem. This fundraising project originally started in late 2007 and was implemented by one of the Firm’s non-attorney staff members. When the project began, the Firm’s goal was to identify a specific need of the Guardian Ad Litem (GAL) program that it could help fill. A Guardian Ad Litem is a person that the court appoints to investigate what solutions would be in the “best interests of a child” that they are representing. With the assistance of the GAL coordinator, the Firm discovered that most of the donations received at Christmas time were items for the younger children, and the needs of the teens in the program went largely unmet.
