THE FEBRUARY ADVOCATE OF THE MONTH IS:
JUDY VANDIVER!
For this month’s Advocate of the Month, we have chosen an advocate who has been a Rockstar from the beginning. Faithful, diligent, PERSISTANT, caring, steady, and full of love and hope for her CASA kids’ futures.
Judy started with CASA last April and hit the ground running. She volunteered to take on a case with a child that had just been placed with family in Louisiana. Knowing that frequent travel to Louisiana would be expected, Judy was not deterred. Judy’s child was transferred into adoptions and we were all hopeful to see a finalized adoption just a few months later; But as we are often reminded, things don’t always go as planned.
Nearly a year later, her child continues to remain with his future adoptive family in Louisiana and is thriving there; but with crossing state lines, paperwork between the two states has been hung up and adoption has not been finalized. Instead of getting frustrated and giving up, Judy pushed in and personally took the time to call government offices in both Texas and Louisiana to figure out what needed to happen to move the case forward. She also took the time to help her foster family to understand what was going on in the process. Through it all, she stays up to date on all of her documentation and keeps her CASA supervisor involved in the process.
In the course of all of this, Judy responded to the need of our CASA program needing more case coverage and she volunteered to become a CASA for another child, while also agreeing to be a courtesy CASA for a child served by another CASA program! She also nearly single-handedly coordinated CASA’s presence at the San Jacinto County Christmas Fair, assists with our Community Outreach Committee, and assisted with raffle ticket sales throughout December. With responsibility to three families and everything else she takes on, Judy has ALWAYS been one to count on to get the job done!
We treasure Judy and are beyond grateful for all the hard work, time, and love she has poured into each of her cases. It’s because of wonderful people just like Judy that our CASA program can do what we do!