B-Rad gave us an inspirational moment; Denise helped out with our flag salute; and Manuel was volunteered to lead us in the four-way song.
Our speaker was Amy Travis, the Executive Director of CASA. CASA works with abused and neglected foster children. A CASA volunteer is the eyes and ears of the Juvenile Court system. There are thousands of foster children waiting for CASA volunteers. Amy told us that there are three things that everyone can do for CASA that will help their organization. First and most importantly, you can become a CASA volunteer. It is an 18-months commitment. You can give money to their fund. Lastly, you can can tell everyone about CASA and how they can help.
Statistically, most foster children are doomed to a life of addiction and homelessness. CASA is trying to change that as much as possible. The solution is citizen volunteers. The idea is to have one volunteer per child. Right now, they have a little over 130 volunteers, but need a lot more. Without an advocate, these children are going to most likely languish in the foster care system.
Finally, during our question and answer session of our program, we learned that our own, Vince Zaragoza, was one of the original people who started CASA. It was so interesting to hear Vince tell us about how little their budget was when they first started and what they had to do in order to get CASA going. Way to go Vince. It's impossible to imagine how many children's lives have changed because Vince and a few other people decide to get CASA going. You were a Rotarian years ago and you didn't even know it.
