Children's worker loves Bar association's surprise

Virginia Irving of Happy Workers Children's Center was invited to talk shop but walks away with the annual Liberty Bell Award at the Law Day Luncheon.

By JON WILSON

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 10, 2000

ST. PETERSBURG -- Virginia Irving was stunned.

Persuaded by college dean Bill Heller's verbal chicanery, Irving attended the St. Petersburg Bar Association's Law Day Luncheon Friday. She had no idea she would be honored.

The Bar presented Irving the annual Liberty Bell Award for community service that contributes to advancing justice and freedom in Pinellas County.

"It was a complete shock," said the director of the historic Happy Workers Children's Center.

Irving for 11 years has directed Happy Workers, a 71-year-old St. Petersburg institution where youngsters are taught peace, compassion and conflict resolution.

The values Irving continues to instill in both children and adults are viewed as a legacy of the Rev. Oscar McAdams and his wife, Willie Lee McAdams. They founded the center as part of Trinity Presbyterian Church in 1929.

Heller, dean of the University of South Florida's St. Petersburg Campus, served on the committee that nominated Irving. A Bar committee eventually made the selection.

The Liberty Bell Award has been given each year since 1965 in conjunction with the observance of Law Day USA on May 1. It always honors a non-lawyer.

Among past winners are John Cannon, former director of the St. Petersburg Family YMCA; businessman and philanthropist Gus Stavros; Bob Anders and Jeff Fortune, the founders of Academy Prep; retired educator Vyrle Davis; former Pinellas school superintendents Gus Sakkis and Scott N. Rose; the late Sister Margaret Freeman, who for years led the St. Petersburg Free Clinic; former St. Petersburg Times columnist Peggy Peterman; and Peter Betzer, who heads the marine science department at USF.

The winner of the Liberty Bell Award is kept secret until the luncheon, which posed a problem for Heller. How was he to persuade Irving to come?

He invited her to lunch at the Yacht Club on the pretext of discussing Great Explorations Hands-On Museum board membership -- Heller is the museum's president elect -- and of talking about involving USF students with Happy Workers.

Once there, Heller suggested they might as well eat with the Bar.

Irving, 58, has a doctorate in early and middle childhood education. The Happy Workers day care center at 902 19th St. S currently nurtures 150 children ages 2 months to 5 years.

The themes of peace and non-violent problem-solving are emphasized virtually from the cradle. Classrooms have "peace benches," and children are encouraged to be kind to one another.

"I think I was overwhelmed Friday because I feel such passion for my work with children, just as people feel passion for saving the whales or saving the planet or these other kinds of endeavors," Irving said.

The award, she said, "affirmed that the work we're doing is making a difference."

Happy Workers plans to establish a center for peace and justice, where conflict resolution can be studied and taught to benefit the wider community.

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