Published: May 13, 2008 04:43 pm            

Meet your neighbors - Jim and Lynda Holmes

vanessa.fultz@gaflnews.com



Jim and Lynda Holmes got involved with Guardian ad Litem after 4-year-old Rilya Wilson went missing in Miami. They lived in Fort Pierce at the time.

“We just felt so badly that that little girl had gotten lost,” Jim said of the foster child whose disappearance sparked an uproar in Florida and across the nation. “We looked at it like being volunteer firemen. We felt we wanted to do something if we possibly could to help.”

A retired broadcast journalist, Jim learned about Guardian ad Litem after producing an hour-long documentary about the program in the 1990s. He had also covered his share of stories on child abuse, so it seemed natural to get involved.

Through the program the couple served as advocates for abused and neglected children. GAL volunteers represent children in court proceedings. The work involves interviewing families, teachers and others involved in children’s lives, then making recommending a course of action to the court.

What matters is what’s in the best interest of the child. That might mean reporting on a child’s living conditions or on his or her physical state.

The couple served as many as 25 children at a time in the 19th Judicial Circuit in the Treasure Coast region (Indian River, St. Lucie and Martin counties) of Florida.

There they worked a case involving three siblings — two girls and a boy. The couple was involved with the family for quite some time.

“They asked me one day would we adopt them,” Jim said.

The Holmeses continued their involvement with the GAL program after they moved to Suwannee County about a year ago.

Jim and Lynda work their cases together and find that their involvement gives them a lot in common.

“It’s one of those things that adds to your relationship,” Jim said. “We’ll go out to dinner every once and awhile and we’ll see a couple and you can tell they’ve been married a long time because they don’t say a word.”

The documentary that Jim produced examined child abuse in the Treasure Coast area and aired on an National Public Radio affiliate. The program won several national awards.

“It took me about six months of my life doing research,” he said. “I was very pleased with the product.”

Jim, 63, ran the NPR affiliate at Indian River Community College. He also served as a lead anchor for a CBS news affiliate in Florida. He worked in the news business from 1962 until last year, when he retired.

Lynda, 57, worked for the U.S. Postal Service for 21 years. She served as a clerk and as a supervisor. She retired in 2006.

“It’s a great job,” she said. “It afforded us the ability to pull the plug early and come up here and retire and enjoy the rest of our lives.”

And they are enjoying their lives in Suwannee County, where they say they’ve found “peace” — an escape from the hustle and bustle of southern Florida.

The Holmeses enjoy gardening and life with their pets: four cats and a 2-pound Yorkie named Scooter.

Lynda describes their place as “a little piece of heaven.”

“We turned a little piece of the woods into a Mecca,” she said.

Lynda and Jim have two children, Jamie and Sarah. Jamie is an anchor with the NBC-TV affiliate in West Palm. Sarah is the personal assistant to the wife of Tom Benson, owner of the New Orleans Saints of the NFL.

They have two grandchildren. Harrison was born April 23; Hannah will be 3 in July.

“I was down there for 27 days and it took him 27 minutes to be born,” Lynda said with a laugh.

The couple is very active at home and in the yard.

“We stay busy. We’re really like little worker bees,” she said, adding that they actually raise bees.

“I like building stuff. I’m not particularly handy, but by about the 12th or 13th time it gets done one way or the other,” Jim said with a laugh.

To learn more about the local Guardian ad Litem, call Tammie Williams at 386-364-7720.

        

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