Meet Susan – Volunteer for 19 years
I once had a mother who was traveling around the nation selling magazines for her job when she got pregnant. She gave birth in Hastings to a beautiful blond-haired, blue-eyed little girl, who was just the sweetest thing, but the mother had a meth problem. Sometimes, when Eva wasn’t in school, they would call me so I would go over to the house and check on Eva and make sure the mother got her to school. After a few years, the mother ended up going to federal prison, and Eva went with the grandmother, who kept me updated.
“The list was never-ending. When I first got into this, I had no idea of the importance of our job because there are too many children slipping through the holes.”
Meet Jane – Volunteer for 8 years
I had a family with six kids for my first case, and unfortunately, it lasted for eight years. When I first started, they told me that I shouldn’t be concerned about reaching all six, but I was determined to reach all of them. In the end, three of the children aged out, and three were adopted, but my favorite moment was when I got the best thank-you note I have ever received in my life from one of the children I didn’t realize I had reached that well. It is something I will cherish for the rest of my life.
“The thing that hit me the most is the need. There is such a vast need for volunteers out there.”
Meet David – Volunteer for 4 years
I have been working with two children on my case, a teenage boy and 7-year-old sister. The older brother has been taking care of the younger sister for most of his life. I recently had a really, really happy moment when she got adopted on National Adoption Day, and that was the greatest day of volunteering with CASA. The brother has been in and out of foster houses, and, in my opinion, he is viewed as rough and tough because he’s had a lot of things happen to him that shouldn’t have, but I have had the opportunity to see his big heart in two places. First, with his younger sister, it was so amazing to see him interact with his sister. He cares for her so much. Secondly, he got the opportunity to volunteer at an animal shelter, and watching his heart for those animals was truly amazing.
“It’s pretty easy to sit here in a rural town and think that everyone is the same, but when you get up close and personal, you see that there are all kinds of problems and that kids have it tough, and almost always it’s not their fault.”
All the names of volunteers and kids have been changed for privacy reasons, but all of these stories are true stories of current and past CASA volunteers.