SWE helps foster kids

By Emily Hilley-Sierzchula

The Highlander

Children in foster care often have to move from home to home, toting their personal items in plastic bags along the way. Sometimes they don’t even sleep on the same pillow as they did the night before.

Children in the newly-0formed Leadership Club at Spicewood Elementary helped fellow youngsters by holding a donation drive for personal care items, ranging from socks to shampoo, as part of the CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) for the Highland Lakes Area project known as the CASA Case Project, a partnership with the First Baptist Church of Marble Falls.

“The donations students collected will help child victims of abuse and neglect transition into foster care more smoothly,” said Kristen Harris, executive director of CASA for the Highland Lakes Area. “It’s always refreshing to see the youngsters in our community getting involved and helping those in need.”

“Often children are removed from their home with nothing except the clothing on their backs and what little they can carry in their arms on the way out the door,” according to CASA. “In these situations, Child Protective Services relies on the Child Welfare Boards, CASA and other community members to try to help meet the needs of these children.”

To help, each grade level was assigned items to donate during February.

“Most donation drives are focused on an incentive, such as a pizza party, but not in this case,” said Casey Marquez, 3rd grade teacher and one of the club’s teacher sponsors at Spicewood Elementary.

Over 480 items were donated. First graders used the $60 they had made from their market day to buy socks. “That was really neat,” Marquez said.

Even more of a learning experience will be students’ trip to the CASA offices in Kingsland this week to drop off the items.

Harris said foster care children will be as appreciative as she was for the donations.

“We’re most appreciative of their donation and are thankful there are teachers like Ms. Marquez, Judie Jenkins, Kelsy Hickingbottom and Audrey Beltran who foster in our young children the value of helping those less fortunate than ourselves,” Harris said.

The brand-new Leadership Club already has 30 members.

“It’s part of a campus-wide vision,” Marquez said. “The kids were so excited to have this way to give back to the community, and we’re looking for more ways to give back.”

The Leadership Club is loosely based on the writings of Stephen R. Covey, author of “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.”

“Part of its purpose is to teach students the seven habits of highly successful kids,” Marquez said.

Leadership Club students give presentations, hold school-wide activities and learn about goal-setting, the importance of being proactive, and, most of all, how giving back to the community is core to being a good leader. Students are given “brag tags,” or key chains, for demonstrating the “7 habits.”

The CASA Case Project is ongoing.

Donations of the following items are needed:

• New pillows with pillow cases

• Child-friendly Bibles

• New sets of socks and undergarments

• Hygiene products, such as Axe Body Spray for teen boys, soap, shampoo, toothpaste and toothbrushes, hairbrushes and hair products.

A contribution to the cause can also be made by way of check, which can be mailed to CASA for the Highland Lakes Area: 1719 Ridgeview Dr., Kingsland, TX, 78639. Organizers ask that check writers designate “CASA Cases” on the memo lines of their checks.

One hundred percent of the contributions will go toward the CASA Case Project.

For more information about CASA, including other ways to volunteer and help, visit www.highlandlakescasa.com.  

Find this story in the Tuesday, March 8, edition of The Highlander.