From Sunday, June 23 through Sunday, June 30, the attorneys at Rosenblum Law raised $1,260 to benefit two charities during the company’s first-ever “Charity Week”. In addition to employees participating in various charity events, the company donated a portion of its legal fees earned during the week.
The money will be split between two non-profits: “Out of the Darkness Overnight Walk” (part of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention) and “Victoria-Strong”. Each charity is deeply personal for two particular members of the Rosenblum Law team. In fact, it was those deep connections that originally inspired the creation of the firm’s “Charity Week” event.
Ronen Cohen, Esq. has been an attorney with Rosenblum Law for the past five years. Four of those five years, he has participated in the annual “Out of the Darkness Overnight Walk”. The event raises money for suicide prevention and works to defeat many of the serious stigmas associated with suicide in America. “Suicide hits almost every single person,” said Ronen. He has lost several family members and friends to suicide over the years, so when he learned about the “Out of the Darkness Overnight Walk”, Ronen was eager to participate. “Suicide is hard to talk about. It’s not like cancer. There’s no stigma around cancer; it’s a disease, a medical issue. But so is suicide. It’s a mental illness and people who get help and get treatment can and should be able to live fulfilling lives.”
The “Out of the Darkness Overnight Walk” is a 16-mile charity walk that starts at 8 p.m. Participants walk the route all night and at dawn, the next day, there is a ceremony to celebrate the walk’s conclusion.
Each year that Ronen participated in the walk, he would encourage members of the firm to sponsor him and contribute money to the charity. According to Jobin Joseph, Esq., office manager and attorney for Rosenblum Law, when attorney Lindsay Bernstein brought another charity to the firm’s attention, the idea for what became “Charity Week” began to ferment.
“One day Lindsay posted a message about a friend of hers who suffers from spina bifida,” said Jobin. “The emotional reaction was very quick.”
“My best friend’s daughter, Victoria, was diagnosed with spina bifida at birth,” Lindsay said. During a recent surgery, Victoria, now 18, suffered some complications which resulted in a 30+ day stay in the hospital. In addition to Victoria having to learn to walk again, her family was left with mounting medical debt.
As such, family and friends established the “Victoria-Strong” charity to help the family both with daunting medical bills and Victoria’s upcoming college tuition needs; in September Victoria will enter the pre-med program at Jacksonville University with hopes of becoming a pediatric neurosurgeon like the one who has treated her all these years.
Jobin said staff members were eager to contribute, but he felt the firm could do more. So he established “Charity Week”, and arranged to have a portion of the fees charged to new clients during the week of June 23 to go to each of the two charities.
The week was chosen because it was bookended by the two fundraising events: the “Out of the Darkness Overnight Walk” on June 22 and a charity whiffle ball game at Meadow Ridge Park in Rumson, NJ to benefit “Victoria-Strong” on June 29.
“I love working for this firm,” said Ronen. “I think one of the major things about Rosenblum Law is that people really care.”
“It’s been so nice and super motivating,” added Lindsay. “We do a lot of team building at the firm, but this has been something else. Everyone is motivated. We are doing this for a good cause. It makes the clients feel good too.”
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