Litigator Ricky Patel in Miami has been honored with the 2023 Children's Champion Award by Forestdale, a non-profit agency that provides foster care, preventive and other family services in New York City. The annual award recognizes an individual or organization who has made the largest impact on the lives of children. Patel and his children’s foundation ITS4THEKIDS received the Children's Champion Award for helping 18,000 foster children in the past three years and specifically the impact made to foster children in New York.

Patel, who focuses his practice on a wide array of issues, including complex litigation in state and federal court, crisis management for high-profile clients, and mass torts, was presented with his award during Forestdale's annual benefit and award ceremony at City Winery in New York on April 26.

ITS4THEKIDS hosts an annual winter wonderland in Queens, NY for 800 foster children and also provides Forestdale with duffle bags filled with necessities for their foster children. Among its notable contributions, the organization provides 250,000 servings of food a year to children in need; it provides over 5000 foster children a year with their necessities in North Carolina, Florida, Texas, NY and Puerto Rico; and its Pitch Perfect Program provides financial resources and grants every month to projects nationally that help children. ITS4THEKIDS  also holds its own “make a wish” program that grants children ever quarter with a wish of their choice.