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Florida State Senators Lauren Book and Jason Pizzo recently spoke to members of the Aventura Marketing Council/Chamber of Commerce at a Zoom meeting sponsored by the new Hilton Aventura, opening February, 2021.
Sen. Book spoke passionately about Lauren’s Kids Foundation which she and her father Ron Book founded in 2007 to prevent childhood sexual abuse and help survivors heal. As a victim of childhood sexual abuse for six years at the hands of a trusted caretaker, Lauren knows that 95% of sexual abuse is preventable through education and awareness. “Not all children experience the joy of childhood. One in 3 girls and 1 in 5 boys will experience the horrors of sexual abuse before their 18th birthday. Though the stats are staggering, especially more so as the COVID crisis has skyrocketed cases, the solution is clear: education and awareness.” For nearly a decade, Lauren has led the organization’s annual statewide “Walk in My Shoes” awareness walk across the state of Florida – 1,500 miles from Key West to Tallahassee. Since 2018, Lauren and the foundation have brought their trek to the rotunda of the Florida Capitol, walking non-stop over 42+ hours to honor the 42 million survivors of child sexual abuse living in the U.S. today. The Foundation provides more than 10 million education and awareness materials statewide through direct mail each year and has helped advocate for the passage of nearly two dozen laws to support survivors and protect children from predators. Lauren’s Kids provides in-school curriculum, resources for families, EMMY and ADDY Award-winning awareness campaigns, and has gone on speaking engagements around the country and the world.
Aventura Mayor Enid Weisman introduced her dear friend, Sen. Jason Pizzo for an update on the Tallahassee legislative session. “He works fearlessly, ferociously and practically non-stop for the people of his State.”
“Just about everything we as legislators talked about last year has been thrown out of the window,” said Senator Pizzo. “If you have a sneaking suspicion that everyone in government has never signed the front of a paycheck you are correct. It has become glaringly obvious on issues such as eviction moratorium to small business relief and relief on the Small Business Administration issues
We’ve had quite a wake-up call, and we’ve worked hard to do as much good as possible with what little has been available. Infrastructure for South Florida is paramount. Over the past several years, I have made pitches and pleas to rolling eyes because the topic is not politically sexy, whether you’re in a city, county or statewide office, to dive into really expensive infrastructure repairs and replacements. You may remember that the Environmental Protection Agency sued Miami-Dade County for the clay pumps that are still pervasive throughout the county and causing raw sewage and storm water issues to repeat themselves. We need about $3.5 billion to replace our aging infrastructure. We’ll be on lockdown this coming legislative session, so we need to discuss these things remotely. Our new County Mayor Daniella Cava has promised that infrastructure will be a priority for her.
Regardless of our political affiliations, we should be able to agree on 85% of the issues to help our communities. Possibly, in the near future, I’ll be announced as a Committee Chairman, which is a very big deal. There are close to 30,000 people our office has helped on everything from unemployment compensation issues, to landlord issues and driver license issues…pro bono work from my legislative aide Maggie and myself, and there’s so much more to do.”
