The Association of Legal Administrators (ALA) held its Third Annual Community Challenge Weekend on October 12-14, 2001. As an association, ALA knows the importance of volunteerism. The Community Challenge Weekend program started in 1999 to encourage ALA chapters, its members, firms and vendors to come together to contribute time, energy and resources toward improving their own communities.

The Knoxville Chapter (KALA) is an avid supporter of the Community Challenge Weekend. This year our chapter selected to Adopt-A-Room at Columbus Home, Inc. Columbus Home is an emergency shelter for children in transition from abusive homes to the foster care system. The home houses up to 25 children for periods of up to one year, and provides a loving, homelike atmosphere for children in difficult situations. The vision of Columbus Home is to insure a safe, nurturing and appropriate home for every vulnerable child.

The Columbus Home is a worthy organization that can use all our help with volunteer work, and our chapter members were generous with their donations of time, money and supplies. For the 12-year old boy’s room which was decorated, the money donated was used to purchase bed linens, a stuffed animal and accessories. Material donations for this project consisted of cloth, paint and paint supplies, and time. The eight members who did the actual room makeover met on October 13th with tools in-hand and were ready to go to work.

When we arrived at the home, children excitedly ran up questioning us as to whose room was going to be decorated. Because we didn’t want to disappoint any of the children, we took a Halloween pumpkin filled with candy and a basket filled with toys for all of them. We met the boy whose room we were decorating and he was very sweet. When the Smokie dog was given to the boy he just hugged him and smiled.

The room was painted a nice neutral color, and a blue material was used to cover the valance over the window. The bed linens and comforter were also blue with a UT "Big Orange" pillow, blanket and the stuffed UT Smokie hound dog used as accents. A UT bulletin board was placed over his bed and a UT trash can beside his bed. We didn’t get to see the boy’s reaction after the room was finished because the police department had generously provided for the children to spend the day at the zoo, but we were all very pleased with the result.

In addition to the Adopt-A-Room program, our chapter also purchased prepaid gift cards from Wal-Mart to assist the Home in providing every child with a backpack, school supplies, personal items, clothes, etc.

It is such a joy to be able to touch a child’s heart.

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