Dottie Berger MacKinnon Receives County’s 'Good Government' Award

Dottie Berger MacKinnon, a tireless advocate for children, whose passion for helping abused and abandoned youngsters is evidenced locally at A Kid’s Place in Brandon, got a well-earned pat on the back May 4.

The former Hillsborough County Commissioner was awarded the 2011 Ellsworth G. Simmons Good Government Award at an early morning ceremony in the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners boardroom at the Fred B. Karl County Center in Tampa.

"I know all the past recipients of this award and I am delighted to be included in this group,” Berger MacKinnon said. "Everybody thinks that one person can't make a difference and you can. You just have to have the tenacity and just be dumb enough to not know that you can't do it and just keep going forward assuming that you can and then [say], 'Okay, there's Plan B,' and keep going."

Elected to the county commission in 1994, Berger MacKinnon also has served on multiple boards and committees for high profile events.  As a child advocate, she helped found the Joshua House in Lutz and Kid's Charity of Tampa Bay.

District 4 Commissioner Al Higginbotham has known Berger MacKinnon for years. He noted at the May 4 meeting that she is the recipient of the 2010 Florida State Senate Spirit of Service Award and in days would formally receive the 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award from the League of Women Voters.

“She has been working for children for decades and when she was elected to the county commission she used her role to bring visibility to the issues of child abuse and neglect,” Higginbotham said in announcing the good government award.

"We're so proud to call you a friend, a contributor to making Hillsborough a great place to live, work and play. You have provided inspiration and leadership to this community for so many years and have given yourself and your heart and have made such a difference."

Commissioner Sandra Murman told MacKinnon she knew her well enough to know "that if you helped one child that was good enough."

"But you helped more than one child," Murman added. "You had a huge impact."

County Commissioners created the Ellsworth G. Simmons Good Government Award in 1996 to annually honor an individual or group who has played a significant role in improving government through leadership and vision.

Simmons was a respected government and civic leader who served seven years on the School Board and 21 years on the County Commission. His involvement in such initiatives at the University of South Florida, Tampa International Airport and University Community Hospital helped transform Hillsborough County from a rural county into a major urban center.

Past recipients of the Ellsworth G. Simmons Good Government Award include former state Senator Malcolm Beard; past Hillsborough County Sheriff Cal Henderson; former state Senate President Tom Lee; the late Nettie M. Draughon, Plant City’s longtime city manager; Sam M. Gibbons, who served as a member of the U.S Congress for 34 years; former City of Tampa Mayor Dick Greco and Earl J. Lennard, former superintendent of Hillsboorugh County schools and now the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections.

Opened in April 2009, A Kid’s Place is a $5 million state- of the-art center providing a temporary home for a children removed from home because of abuse, abandonment, or neglect.

The 5-acre campus on Lithia Pinecrest Road was built with private funding and in-kind contributions from local businesses, philanthropists, and volunteers.

The facility provides a safe, healthy, nurturing home for children who are taken from their homes, at least temporarily, while the courts work to figure out what happened, and whether to return these children to their homes.

A Kid’s Place is not the first time Berger MacKinnon and her supporters have championed the cause of children. Two decades ago, she led a group of concerned citizens — including Bob Thomas, Olin Mott, Jim Zimmerman, Laurence Hall, Greg Johnson, and Alberto de Alejosis - in the founding of the Joshua House in Lutz, a residential home for children who have been removed from their families.

Berger MacKinnon noted at the May 4 meeting that A Kid's Place is the only place in Hillsborough County area to open its doors to children newly born through age 18 that keeps siblings together.

"And it is making a big difference in how we treat foster kids in Hillsborough County," she said, noting that while the residential complex serves 60 kids it has been asked to expand "because we're turning kids away every day."

"We have raised the bar and we're encouraged," she said. "We're not going to give up."

How much a part of her life is her mission to help kids has never been questioned by those who both work with and love her. In February, at a celebration in honor of both Berger MacKinnon, who is battling cancer, and A Kid's Place in Brandon, her husband, Sandy MacKinnon, unveiled an artist's rendering of a sculpture that will sit on the playground at the Lithia Pinecrest Road facility.

He also gave her a matching donation of $1 million to help retire the mortgage on the group foster home, telling the Brandon News, "I wanted that taken care of so she can take that off her plate and concentrate on getting better."