Cooperman-Bogue

Weeks after allied forces liberated Paris from the clutches of Germany – right about the time General Douglas MacArthur made his triumphant return to wrest control of the Philippines from Japan – a Pinellas County juvenile court judge named Lincoln C. Bogue spoke to the local Community Welfare Council and drew attention to a battle yet to be waged right here on the home front.  He lamented the lack of options available to him when children appeared before him for delinquency.  He knew that prison was no place for a wayward child, but with no local children’s detention home, that is often where they wound up.  Thanks to the sacrifices of our “greatest generation”, America would emerge from World War II a changed nation, but our next generation was in jeopardy of being left behind.

Leonard Cooperman, a young St. Petersburg attorney worked with Judge Bogue on an Advisory Council to address the needs of children and eventually drafted legislation in 1945 that forever changed the quality of life for the children and families of Pinellas County.  The legislation gave birth to the Juvenile Welfare Board; the nation’s first county-wide special taxing district dedicated to children’s services.

The legacy of Leonard Cooperman and Judge Lincoln C. Bogue lives on through the Juvenile Welfare Board.  Thanks to their work, today hundreds of dedicated people have the funding to provide services for children that Mr. Cooperman and Judge Bogue could have only dreamed of sixty-five years ago.  As a tribute to the two men instrumental in the creation of the Juvenile Welfare Board, the Cooperman-Bogue KidsFirst Awards honors these human-services professionals.