By BETH CHAPMAN / Community Columnist

With all the festive things that surround the true meaning of Christmas, one can often get bogged down in places to go and things to do. There are Christmas luncheons, Christmas parties, Christmas pageants, Christmas shopping, Christmas musicals, Christmas plays, Christmas caroling, Christmas parades and Christmas Day.

You get the point. People are very, very busy at Christmas, and that is the time that we all plan – you got it, our organization’s Christmas party.  Not the Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of Shelby County.

This year, Christmas came early for CASA of Shelby County. They were treated Nov. 14 at the home of Kathy and Tony Robinson in Hoover. The volunteers and board members had a good time of food and fellowship before the Christmas rush.

The CASA Volunteers were thanked throughout the course of the evening and given a CASA T-shirt from their choice of Alabama or Auburn football designs. The time was most appropriate since there are only a few days left before the Alabama-Auburn Iron Bowl extravaganza.

With both Christmas and the Iron Bowl being discussed in fun and healthy ways, the center of the focus as always was on the invaluable work the CASA volunteers do for our community and the countless children they serve. CASA volunteers help prevent child abuse in many cases and work with those who were not fortunate enough to escape it in their lives. Sadly, the numbers of the second kind are growing faster than those of the first.

CASA is a valuable weapon in the fight against child abuse and neglect according to Judge Jim Kramer, Shelby County’s Juvenile Court Judge. CASA volunteers provide him with information he might not otherwise receive on what is occurring in the classrooms and homes of the children he sees. CASA volunteers are the eyes and ears of the court and work in many ways as trained advocates to ensure that every child they serve has a safe and permanent home.

CASA of Shelby County is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization. In addition to their own fundraising efforts, they are funded in part by the Children’s Trust Fund of Alabama and a Shelby County Community Grant.

For more information on CASA and the work they do and how you can be trained to serve in the fight against child abuse and neglect, please visit Casaofshelbycounty.org.

 

Beth Chapman, Alabama’s secretary of state, is a Shelby County resident and writes a weekly column for the Shelby County Reporter. You can reach her at bethchapman@bellsouth.net.