Kalish House
by Caroline Chambliss
YMCA Foundation of Sarasota

Church of the Palms helped decorate Kalish House for Christmas again this year and the boys enjoyed a wonderful meal with our members as family and friends. During the Holidays the boys also joined Church members for a performance of the Singing Christmas Tree.

In January everyone went ice-skating and in February it was the long awaited, third annual Kalish House versus Church of the Palms Basketball tournament. Youth Group members joined our Church volunteers again this year including Todd Johnson of the Chicago Bears. In a hard fought battle the Church won 104-100 in overtime!

Todd was gracious enough to join the boys at Kalish on April 3rd. Todd and the boys played a pick-up game of basketball, everyone had dinner outside and then watched a DVD of his best plays at the University of Florida. After the DVD Todd gave a wonderful inspirational speech with a sophisticated message. He encouraged the boys to be good in all aspects of their lives...to be respectful of their teachers, attentive in school and to always remember that the staff of Kalish and the adults that are involved in their lives care very deeply about them. He reminded them that these are people that are laying a foundation for their lives and that they will always be there for them. The boys were enthralled and then loved asking a wide variety of football "insider" questions which he very graciously answered.