Margie Rothman Green honored as Lightning Community Hero

Margie Rothman Green was honored as Lightning Community Hero on December 21st at the Tampa Bay Lightning game against the Vegas Golden Knights.

In recognition of becoming a Lightning Hero, Green was awarded a $50,000 donation from the Lightning Foundation, Community Heroes program, presented by Jabil.  Margie is donating this award to Gulf Coast JFCS for a very special purpose- the establishment of the Children First Innovation Fund, dedicated to reducing the time foster children wait to be adopted into their forever families. 

Margie and her family have been champions for improving life for all children for more than three decades through their family foundation, the Maurice A. & Thelma P. Rothman Family Foundation, for which she serves as Executive Director.  “Our mother had a place in her heart for our foster children and our families wanting to adopt.”

Over the years, thousands of children have benefitted from this compassionate caring in big and other priceless ways from helping all children live in safer, healthier homes and foster children finding adoptive families to providing school backpacks, and toys or gifts during the holidays. 

The Gulf Coast JFCS Children First Innovation Fund is focused on lessening the obstacles to helping children in foster care find their ‘forever family.’  Funds will be used to increase access to ma adoption competent therapy, court-ordered for most foster children, and to reduce burnout and decrease turnover of child welfare case managers which industry wide approaches 70% annual turnover.  Each time a case manager turns over, the assigned child’s progress toward adoption is delayed an average of 6 months.  Mitigating both the therapeutic counseling access issue as well as case manager turnover will offer potentially game-changing outcomes for helping foster children find their permanent homes.

In response to this, Margie Green shares “by being awarded this generous $50,000 contribution and recognition from The Lightning Foundation and Jeff and Penny Vinik, we can continue our beloved mother’s dream of matching foster children with their forever families. We will be able to accomplish this more quickly by having the funds to hire our own social workers. We are so grateful and feel so blessed.”

Full press release: Margie Rothman honored as Tampa Bay Lightning Community Hero