Jan 21, 2026
The Tampa Bay Lightning honored Jeanne Tate as the first Lightning Community Hero this season during the first period of tonight’s game versus the Florida Panthers. Jeanne, who received a $50,000 donation from the Lightning Foundation and the Lightning Community Heroes program, will donate the money to Gift of Adoption.
Jeanne has worked for the past 30 years helping find homes for abused, neglected, and abandoned children. She does this through her pro bono work with the State of Florida foster care population and Bay Area Legal Services where she has donated over 1,000 hours as a volunteer, pro bono attorney and mentor.
Judges, social workers and adoption professionals regularly reach out to Jeanne for assistance in finding homes for special needs children. Her visionary work and innovative approaches both nationally and internationally have led to changes in our laws and over 3,000 children have landed in their forever homes due to Jeanne’s efforts. She also works as a volunteer for Gift of Adoption Fund and created the St. Frances Fund to assist adoptive parents of special needs children.
To a person, at both her firm and the agency, we all feel very fortunate to work alongside Jeanne and are so blessed to be associated with her. We couldn’t be more proud of this Community Hero!
See the video about Jeanne produced by the Lightning by clicking the link below:
https://www.nhl.com/lightning/news/jeanne-tate-honored-as-lightning-community-hero/c-300708632
