Randall Kirkpatrick, Director of community development
To the editor:
Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of Mercer County held its fourth annual CASA Kids 5K and Family Fun Run on Saturday, May 21, at The Princeton Pike Corporate Center in Lawrenceville.
The event, co-chaired by Kathleen Kinka of Aurora Management Consultancy and Coleen MacNabb of Sun National Bank, raised over $43,000 for our Ewing-based organization. We had over 270 runners and walkers participate, including 9 teams, with the highest number of runners (81) again from Team Tyco.
CASA of Mercer County recruits, screens and trains volunteer advocates from the community to speak up in Family Court for the best interests of abused and neglected children who have been removed from their homes. CASA volunteers are commonly referred to as the eyes and ears of Family Court and are committed to helping their ‘kids’ find safe and permanent homes. CASA of Mercer County officially merged with CASA of Burlington County on April 7; CASA Mercer oversees both programs from its Ewing headquarters, while Burlington serves as a satellite office from its current Mt. Holly offices. At one point last year there were over 1000 children in out-of-home placement (foster care and residential facilities) in Mercer and Burlington Counties.
The day would not have been possible without a generous group of sponsors. Mathematica Policy Research was our Silver Medal Sponsor; Bronze Medal Sponsors were Bracco Diagnostics, Diversified Rack & Shelving, Loftus Construction, Novo Nordisk, NRG and PSE&G; Pacer Sponsors were Brandywine Realty Trust, DJ Sully, First Choice Bank, Fox Rothschild, Nass-Tech Mechanical, New Jersey Manufacturers Insurance, Ranco Construction, Sovereign Bank, Sun National Bank and Wilmington Trust.
We also extend deep thanks to our over 150 advocates, a number of whom volunteered their time on “race day.” Our next volunteer training sessions will be held in October 2011visit www.casamercer.org or call 609.434.0050 to learn about upcoming introductory information sessions or for other ways to become involved with CASA’s mission to provide safe and permanent homes for these children.
Randall Kirkpatrick
Director of community development
CASA of Mercer County
Lori Morris
Executive director
CASA of Mercer County
