GREENFIELD – Having spent three years as a child served by the Court Appointed Special Advocates program – which supports children removed from their homes due to abuse or neglect – 18-year-old Mackenzie Kempers was anxious to give back.
On Tuesday, Nov. 6, she was among the crew of busy elves who transformed the shelter house in Greenfield’s Riley Park into a winter wonderland, where children in the CASA program got the chance to visit with Santa, decorate cookies and stockings, and enjoy a dinner of hot dogs and chips. A magician, balloon artist and face painters provided the entertainment.
CASA director Marciann McClarnon Miller, who founded the local CASA program and its support network — Friends of CASA — said the party was a great opportunity to share some Christmas spirit with children who could use an extra helping of holiday cheer.
With wide-eyed wonder, the children looked around the shelter house with as much joy as if it were Christmas Day.
Each child was able to pick from an assortment of books and received a pair of winter gloves and a wrapped gift to take home for Christmas Day.
“We wanted to make sure that everybody had something under the tree,” McClarnon Miller said.
The party was funded by Hancock County CASA’s Dream Big initiative, which generates funding to support kids in the program.
The Vernon Township Kiwanis Club also chipped in, providing duffelbags for each child containing a blanket, a basketball, a stuffed animal, candy and a toothbrush.
More than 100 people attended Tuesday, including about 60 kids — both children being served by CASA as well as any children living in their current household – whether that’s a relative’s house or foster home.
The local CASA program currently serves more than 180 children, all of whom are assigned a volunteer special advocate known as a CASA to serve as their voice in the courts.
While Tuesday’s party was a time for celebration, McClarnon Miller said the reality is more volunteers are urgently needed to serve children on the waitlist.
“We’ve had many volunteers retire and many leave the organization, so we’ve lost those voices for kids,” she said. “We need to make a real big effort to get our story out there and help people understand who we are and what we do and what a great need there is in the county.”
McClarnon Miller said the CASA program was designed to give children a voice at case conferences and in court, where judges often determine the fate of a child who has been removed from a home for abuse or neglect.
“A lot of times the CASA becomes the one and only person that (these kids) have ever been able to count on in their entire life,” she said.
The director gets emotional thinking of one young girl who was shocked to see her show up a second time, after first getting to know the little girl while coloring together. “When I went back the next time she looked at me with an astonished look on her face and said, ‘You came back,’” McClarnon Miller recalled.
“The kids are just not used to having anybody show up, and a CASA will sometimes be the only person to show up for their music program or basketball game or anything in their world,” she said. “Even if it’s just having lunch with them at school, we show up.”
CASAs are trained to not only be a support system for kids but to be the judge’s eyes and ears for the court, relaying information a judge may not otherwise know.
McClarnon Miller recalls the day a kindergartner asked her to pass a message along to her mom, who had lost custody of her.
“I told her, ‘You know I’m going to the judge this week. What do you want me to tell him?’ And this kindergartner said, ‘I want him to tell my mom something.’ She said, ‘Tell the judge to tell my mom to get with it. I want to come home.’”
McClarnon Miller said relaying that message is the perfect example of how a CASA can impact a child’s life.
“Sometimes the voice of a child can carry more weight than the voice of a judge or an attorney or therapist,” she said.
“When a CASA is not there to speak up for that child, the child has no voice. They don’t have anybody at important school meetings, they don’t have anyone in court to let the judge know what they need and want. When they don’t have anybody to step up and do that, they start falling through the cracks.”
Kempers will never forget the many times her CASA, Ellie Hancock, served as her voice after she and her little brother were removed from their home when she was 14.
“Ellie is probably the sweetest person I’ve ever met in my life, and she always radiated that positive energy onto us and made us feel safe and wanted at a time when we really didn’t feel wanted. I’m extremely grateful to have had her,” said Kempers, who graduated from Mt. Vernon High School earlier this year.
Volunteering as a CASA requires 30 hours of training followed by four hours of observation, with the commitment to visit each child at least once a month. A CASA is also required to show up for court proceedings, which typically take place about every six months.
“(Department of Child Services) is run ragged,” said McClarnon Miller, “and they don’t often have the ability or time to really visit with each child and build a relationship with that child like a CASA would.”
McClarnon Miller said the Hancock County CASA program is accepting new volunteers “24/7,” and hopes to see many more consider joining the program in the new year.
She also hopes the inaugural CASA Kids Christmas Party will be the first of many to come.
“It was because of the generosity of so many people supporting our Dream Big program that we were able to put this event on,” she said.
For more information on becoming a CASA or financially supporting the program, call 317-477-1304 or visit CASAhancockcountyin.org.
