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presentations, and post all of their excellent materials online. Shari and her team are confirming arrangements for accreditation of these online programs, and we hope to make an announcement to everyone shortly.
• We will be inviting all of our Distinguished Law Students to join us and be introduced at our Luncheon in San Diego, and Shari also has arranged for them to attend the IWIRC conference at no charge.
Looking Ahead. It goes without saying in these times of uncertainty that the broad financial support offered by the College and Foundation to legal services organizations providing pro bono consumer bankruptcy services will be in greater demand than ever. With unemployment having skyrocketed to levels not seen since the Great Depression and millions of new claims being filed every week, literally millions of American households will face the cruel dilemma of what bills to pay in order to provide food, shelter and basic amenities.
To help us meet this these ever-increasing needs, we thank once again the 137 professional firms that supported the College's Patrons & Sponsors Program for 2020 to the tune of $356,250, as well as the 546 Fellows who contributed an almost identical amount to our Foundation Campaign at the end of 2019. Both of these amounts are new records for the Program and Campaign, and details can be found in the separate Columns authored by our new President Melissa Kibler and our Foundation Chair Paul Harner, who begins his second term in that important role.
About My Predecessors. Sparing them here a rehash of the gentle roastings that I offered on our telephonic Board meeting and had hoped to embellish even colorfully for the Luncheon Meeting in Washington, I want to express my enormous and heartfelt gratitude to our outgoing Chair Marc Levinson, and to Chris Meyer whom Marc now succeeds in the role of Immediate Past Chair. Throughout my 22 years as a Fellow the College has been blessed year after year with Simply Great Leadership, a tradition that both of them have continued and enhanced. On behalf of the College I extend our warmest and most sincere thanks and appreciation for their service -- their thoughtfulness, dignity, and ability to lead by consensus and example have continued the path of the College to the thriving and vital organization it is today. Thank you Marc, thank you Chris, for being such magnificent leaders and role models. I know you both will be there for me as I seek your advice and wise counsel frequently over the next two years.
A Final Word.
Wishing you, your families, friends and colleagues safety, shelter and good health. As everyone in our profession gets increasingly busy dealing with the economic fallout arising from this global pandemic, I know that all of our Fellows will approach the avalanche of new challenges with the same passion for excellence and sense of professional responsibility that makes us so proud to have you in the College.
Until October, I hope.