"At this year’s event, CASA for Children of Bergen County will be naming all of its advocates as Angel Award recipients," states Zonie LeSane, President of the Board of Trustees of Bergen CASA. She adds, "We recognize them for their outstanding advocacy and realize it is no small job to stand up for a child. A CASA advocate can change a child's story, and we are proud to recognize ALL of them, as a whole this year. We want them all to know how valuable they are.".
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| Former NY Giants Champion Carl Banks with Zonie LeSane, President of Bergen CASA |
Scheduled to attend the event to help celebrate the work of the organization will be CASA's 2020 Champion Honorees. They are American Boxing Referee Eddie Cotton, former two-time Super Bowl NY Giants Carl Banks and Ottis Andreson, and Sam Garnes, NY Jets. Master of Ceremonies will be retired NBA Basketball player Eric Murdock. Special Guest will be Terrence Coffie, Adjunct Lecturer at NYU.
Suzanne Ordas Curry, Chair of the Advisory Council and last year's Angel Award Recipient states, "We are proud to have so many champions coming to support our champions. CASA is a national organization but we are fighting the issues of abuse and neglect on the local level, helping one local child at a time. We are grateful for the advocates and the champions coming out to support CASA."
About Court Appointed Special Advocates:
CASA advocates are volunteers that advocate on behalf of the county’s abused and neglected children and work to ensure that needed services and assistance are made available to these children while helping them move toward safe and permanent homes as quickly as possible. CASA volunteers are assigned to only one case; either one child or one family of children at a time, which allows them to devote an enormous amount of time to that child so that he/she does not slip through the cracks of the judicial and child welfare systems. In short, the CASA volunteer is an open-minded and unbiased voice for the child in the court process and a consistent and caring person in the child’s life. All CASA advocates receive special training needed to help deal with a child in need.
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| 2019 Emcee NBC News Anchor Pat Battle with Karen Cedzidlo, Angel Award Recipient |
Currently, there are more children in foster care in Bergen County than CASA has the volunteers or financial resources, to handle, and Bergen County CASA's goal is to have an advocate for every child. Advocates are always needed and additional funds help us grow the program. If interested in becoming a CASA volunteer, please visit the website and sign up for an information session. That is the first step, the first step towards becoming a volunteer and the first step to changing a child's story.
For more information on CASA, email info@bergencasa.org or visit www.bergencasa.org. If you would like to make a monetary donation, would like to know how to become a CASA volunteer or would like to know other ways to help, please call Lauren Awe at 201-336-7520 or visit our website. CASA is located at One Bergen County Plaza in Hackensack.