A SEASON OF CELEBRATION
FIVE ELVES OF INTEREST
65
Name: H. Dale Hoffa
Age: 84
Family: daughters Susan,
58; Linda, 57; sons
Jimmy, 55; Charles, 47;
Michael, 47; 10 grandchildren
and five greatgrandchildren.
Elves
Background: Born
Haddon Heights, N.J. Owned and operated an ice
cream store before moving to Florida in 1972 to
open a swimming pool business.
What most people don’t know about me: “I am
really a big fan of the 40s and the 50s big-band era.
I saw all the big bands in Camden because of the
blue (no alcohol) laws they had in Philadelphia —
Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Cab Calloway, Frank
Sinatra; I’ve seen them all. The movie would end
and the screen would go up and the band would
play their theme song.”
Favorite holiday memory: “We lived in a house
in Maple Shade, N.J. My daughters were 2 and 3. I
bought an eight-millimeter camera and filmed their
first Christmas in our own home. My 2-year-old
discovered her spring rocking horse. We couldn’t
get her off of it to eat breakfast.”
“We have no offices or employees,” says Grand. “The delivery
system is so direct to thousands of children. This organization is wonderful,
Elves
Elves
but he (Hoffa) is the icing on the cake.”
School nurses identify children who need care and refer them to
CER, where there is a screening process to ensure the child comes
from a family in need with low income or no insurance. If the family
qualifies and the bill is under $650, no board approval is required.
The child is simply sent to the eye doctor or a prescription is filled.
“We screen children for vision problems,” says Tracey Bowsman,
board member and former CER nursing director. “We see the needs
in the schools and try to get the child on insurance. We screen children
for vision problems. They do better in school when they can see.
Their grades go up.”
Bowsman is in awe of Hoffa’s charity work. “His compassion for
CER is addictive. He holds it together. He gives his whole heart. His
time he gives for fund raising is amazing. With everything he does
we are able to help out so many more children in Martin County,”
she says.
The Martin County Health Department has optometry and audio
machines — purchased by CER — that enable faster diagnosis of children
with vision and hearing problems. The organization is looking
for laptops that can be converted into a virtual school for pregnant
high school girls.
“That’s how we are educating these girls through the school libraries,”
Hoffa says. “We have two girls from last year who are now in
Indian River State College. Is that a knockout or what?” he says with
his trademark smile and infectious excitement. “There is no waiting
list and that is the key to this. Every kid gets taken care of right away.”
Hoffa’s regimen of giving to charity goes back to his days with >>