2019 AADC Service Project

The Arkansas Association of Defense Counsel held its 2019 Annual Meeting in Fayetteville on August 2-3, which included AADC’s inaugural #DRICares community service project! Our efforts benefited Arkansas Children’s Northwest in Springdale, Arkansas, by gathering Family House Wish List Items and “family packs.”

The Family House is a place for family members of hospitalized patients and infusion center patients to “get away” and relax. A “family pack” is a Ziploc bag (7-8 inches or 1 quart) full of small toiletries and personal hygiene items. These are of tremendous assistance to the families of patients at Arkansas Children’s Northwest, especially the many families who have unexpected stays. Our goal was to provide as many “Family House Wish List Items” as possible, and to provide at least 35 “family packs.” Ideally, we wanted each attendee’s law firm to provide at least one bulk item on the Family House Wish List and for each attendee to provide as many items as possible that can be used to make “family packs.”

Thanks to many individual AADC and DRI members, their law firms, our vendor sponsors, and local friends in the community (especially Heather Adams Dentistry), we were able to secure supplies for approximately 48 “family packs,” including backpacks. We also collected significant materials for the Family House. In addition, we received generous cash contributions from the AADC and from our DRI colleague Melissa Roeder! Special thanks go out to Steve Bingham, DRI Arkansas State Representative, who helped organize this project and joined me in accepting AADC’s financial contribution at President Elect Bradley Runyon’s Reception Friday evening; Bryan Burns, AADC President (2018-19), who whole-heartedly supported and encouraged this project; Tracey Cline-Pew, AADC’s longtime Executive Director, who assisted tirelessly as well (as always); Thomas J. Hurney, Jr., our DRI keynote speaker and newly certified “Arkansas Traveler”; and Rebecca Neely at Arkansas Children’s Northwest for her help in organizing and guiding us in connection with this project. AADC sincerely appreciates DRI and #DRICares for planting the seed of this idea!

We were honored as an organization to be able to show our support in this way for Arkansas Children’s Northwest, and its mission of helping children and their families here in Northwest Arkansas and throughout the region.


Jason B. Hendren
Former AADC President & current DRI Board of Directors (Southwest Regional Representative)