The Rotary Club of San Marcos hosted Court Appointed Special Advocates of Central Texas and raised $6,000 to support the nonprofit. The drive to collect funds came with a beard shave for one of its members who had not been clean shaven in a quarter century.
CASA provides advocacy for kids in the child welfare system, according to the website. The organization trains volunteers to ensure foster children’s needs are met.
John Hardy, Rotary Club member and owner of Divided Sky Roofing and Solar, initiated the campaign to raise money for CASA and matched up to $2,500 of the donations, for a cause that supported he and his wife Allison’s journey as foster parents.
“We had the luxury of having a CASA advocate during our cases,” Hardy said. “We had kids without a CASA volunteer; we had kids with a CASA volunteer, and we noticed the difference immediately. The cases moved a lot smoother.”
To bolster funds for the organization, Hardy agreed to shave his beard, which he had for 25 years, in front of the club.
Jade Dimitri, CASA community engagement manager, explained what the nonprofit does.
“Our bottom line is the best interest of the child or children in the case,” Dimitri said. “Our volunteers are pros and very dedicated to providing best interest advocacy directly to the judge on the cases that we’re appointed to. … Our ultimate goal for each case that we serve on is [to secure] a permanent, safe and loving home.”
CASA has a range of avenues to provide that safe home to the kids under its purview.
“Hopefully it is reunification with their parents. We love to advocate for reunification with parents if it’s safe and appropriate and if all of the concerns that brought the case into existence are alleviated,” Dimitri said. “If that’s not safe or appropriate or possible, we love to advocate for children to be placed with family. Whether that’s short term or whether that’s the permanent solution to that case, it’s adoption or conservatorship by a family member. And then, of course, there are amazing, loving foster homes that are unrelated to the child, that are the best outcome for that specific case.”
CASA volunteers are appointed to a case by a judge, and each has only one at a time in order to give the case their full attention.
“The volunteers are responsible for gathering information, facilitating — hopefully — efficient and productive communication between the parties on the case,” Dimitri said. “Sometimes that’s a thing that is lost in these cases, and things tend to fall through the cracks. Our job as a CASA is to make sure that those things that are falling through the cracks are scooped back up and brought to the attention of the person that needs to know.”
Learn more, donate and become a volunteer at this link: casacentex. org.
