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.