Bill Text: FL S0766 | 2010 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Budd Bell Day

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2010-04-30 - Died, not introduced, companion bill(s) passed, see HR 9019 (Adopted) [S0766 Detail]

Download: Florida-2010-S0766-Introduced.html

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Florida Senate - 2010                             (NP)    SR 766 
 
By Senator Sobel 
31-00624-10                                            2010766__ 
1                          Senate Resolution 
2         A resolution recognizing June 16, 2010, as “Budd Bell 
3         Day” in the State of Florida. 
4 
5         WHEREAS, Elizabeth Lander “Budd” Bell’s impassioned 
6  advocacy on behalf of the state’s most vulnerable citizens 
7  earned her the moniker the “conscience of Florida,” and 
8         WHEREAS, Elizabeth Lander, born in Winnipeg, Canada, on 
9  June 16, 1915, became the first woman president of her high 
10  school class, earned bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate degrees 
11  in sociology, and moved to Florida in 1969 with her husband, 
12  William Bell, where she continued her lifelong dedication to 
13  improving the lives of children, elders, and people with 
14  disabilities or mental illness, and 
15         WHEREAS, Elizabeth Lander Bell was nicknamed “Buddha,” 
16  later shortened to “Budd,” when, as a teenager and a counselor 
17  at a camp for disabled children, she provided leadership and 
18  guidance to other counselors while sitting under a tree, cross 
19  legged, reminiscent of the Buddha, discussing issues relating to 
20  justice for the disadvantaged, and 
21         WHEREAS, in 1972, Budd Bell, after persuading the 
22  Legislature to match the funding provided by the Federal 
23  Government for child care for low-income families, founded Kids 
24  Incorporated of the Big Bend, Florida’s first subsidized child 
25  care center, and 
26         WHEREAS, in 1974, Budd Bell established what is now known 
27  as the Budd Bell Clearinghouse on Human Services, an advocacy 
28  coalition of over 200 member organizations devoted to providing 
29  human services, and was a founder of the Florida Center for 
30  Children and Youth and the state’s Human Rights Advocacy 
31  Committees, which have advocated for human services clients 
32  since 1975, and 
33         WHEREAS, Budd Bell was instrumental in drafting Florida’s 
34  involuntary commitment law, the Baker Act, to protect the 
35  mentally ill from being held against their will in locked 
36  hospitals, and 
37         WHEREAS, Budd Bell was a founding member of the National 
38  Association of Social Workers, and 
39         WHEREAS, in 1998, Budd Bell received the Allstate Good 
40  Hands Award, presented to her by General Colin Powell, for her 
41  dedication to volunteer advocacy, and 
42         WHEREAS, Budd Bell received honors and awards and achieved 
43  milestones too numerous to mention in the advancement of human 
44  social services, and 
45         WHEREAS, Budd Bell sought to improve the quality of life of 
46  all Floridians throughout the 77 years she spent as an advocate 
47  for human services, NOW, THEREFORE, 
48 
49  Be It Resolved by the Senate of the State of Florida: 
50 
51         That June 16, 2010, is recognized as “Budd Bell Day” in the 
52  State of Florida.