The Silver Knight Alumni Legacy Network Attains 501 C-3 Status

May 27, 2011 - PRLog -- The Silver Knight Alumni Legacy Network Attains 501 C-3 Status
Help from Silver Knight Alum and FIU College of Law Community Development Clinic

(May 2011) MIAMI - The Silver Knight Alumni Legacy Network (SKALN) recently obtained the organization’s 501 C-3 status thanks to the Community Development Clinic (“Clinic”) at Florida International University College of Law, made possible through the efforts of the Clinic’s lawyer supervisors John Little and Shahrzad Emami, and student interns Brandon Hechtman and Brian Shue (both of whom recently passed and were admitted the Florida Bar).

Through the Clinic students provide legal counsel and transactional legal services, under the supervision of faculty who are experienced legal practitioners, to selected start-ups, small businesses, and non-profit organizations over the course of one semester. Hechtman and Shue prepared the necessary documentation to jumpstart The Silver Knight Alumni Legacy Network in garnering the 501 C-3 status with the I.R.S. Hecthman and Shue both graduated in the top of their class from the FIU College of Law in December 2010. Hechtman was a 2003 Silver Knight Award winner in Art from New World School of the Arts High School. As a Silver Knight Award recipient, this project was near and dear to him.

Thanks to Hechtman and Shue’s contribution, The Silver Knight Alumni Legacy Network can now interact as a forum to engage past, present and future Silver Knight honorees. For over fifty years, the Silver Knight Awards have recognized the best and brightest of our South Florida high school seniors who have put those skills to use in service on behalf of their fellow residents. The creation of the Alumni Legacy Network serves as an additional resource for the winners and a support organization for the award itself. In the long term, they hope to provide an additional level of financial support for the award to ensure that the Silver Knight Award remains a critical educational component of our community and in the individual lives of those that participate in the program.

Jimmy L. Morales, the founding president of SKALN, stated, "We appreciate the efforts of Mr. Hechtman, Mr. Shue, and the Community Development Clinic at Florida International University College of Law to obtain our 501 C-3 status. This will allow us to launch our organization and continue the great legacy of the Silver Knight awards."

For more information regarding The Silver Knight Alumni Legacy Network or to become a member of this outstanding organization please visit http://silverknightalumni.com or email SilverKnightAlumni@miamiherald.com.
 
The Miami Herald Silver Knight Award is one of the nation’s most highly regarded student awards programs. The purpose of this Awards program is to recognize outstanding students who have not only maintained good grades but have also unselfishly applied their special knowledge and talents to contribute significant service to their schools and communities. The Silver Knight Awards program was instituted at The Miami Herald in 1959 by John S. Knight, past publisher of The Miami Herald, founder and editor emeritus of Knight-Ridder Newspapers and 1968 Pulitzer Prize winner. ” They have been given in Miami-Dade County, Florida since 1959 and in Broward County, Florida since 1984. Over 1,100 award winners in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties have received a Silver Knight in the following categories: Art; Athletics; Business; Drama; English & Literature; Foreign Language; General Scholarship; Journalism; Mathematics; Music; New Media; Science; Social Science; Speech; Vocational-Technical