“When I look out across the room, I often think of the power of the chance encounter. And the chance encounter is that item or incident that happens quickly. You run across an individual or an idea or an event that at the time may seem trivial, or even meaningless. But as time goes by, you realize it had significant impact on the course of your life and perhaps on the life of others around you.”

Bob Wilson, President & CEO of workscompensation.com and President of Kids’ Chance of Florida, shared these thoughts while emceeing the 2019 Kids’ Chance dinner at the 2019 National Conference. His home state of Florida served as the host organization.

As part of his remarks, he shared that in the early 2000s he met Doug McCoy who introduced him to Kids’ Chance. Bob’s company then adopted Kids’ Chance as its official charitable endeavor. Bob credits this moment as the reason he’s doing what he’s doing today.

“I think all of us have similar chance encounters that brought us here, for a common reason, for a common good. And we all recognize the power of that.”

He went on to share another chance encounter – one that will benefit Kids’ Chance students going forward.

Bob was invited to give a presentation on Kids’ Chance to another organization. Afterwards, he was approached by someone he had known for 20 years.

The individual told Bob that he’d really like to set up a scholarship. Specifically, he wanted to give $10,000 a year to one kid who really needed it so he could make a significant difference in their life.

Kids’ Chance of Florida has gone on to create the TJ STEM scholarship. Gabriella Garcia has won that scholarship for multiple years and shared her story with everyone who attended the conference.

Bob took the opportunity to share this story because he wants to see more volunteers leverage chance encounters to further the Kids’ Chance mission: “The lesson is this happened because I went outside the worker’s comp box. We spend a lot of time within our industry, talking to worker’s comp providers, talking to vendors, looking for support and money within the industry. There is support outside the industry, so I encourage everybody to go outside in your civic networks and your chambers and talk about Kids’ Chance.

“We in Florida are now changing lives because we did just that. I’ve known TJ for 20 years and had no idea he wanted to set up a scholarship, and he had no idea I was involved in this organization. It pays to get out and spread the word.”

As Kids’ Chance Awareness Week approaches, there are numerous ways to share the Kids’ Chance mission, and most importantly, many opportunities to do so outside of the workers’ compensation industry. You never know who might be able to support our cause - or more importantly, who might know a student in need.

‍Kids’ Chance Awareness Week will be November 11-15, 2019. You can download our media kit and other tools for easy sharing.