HOLT CAT posted on July 27, 2021 13:24
CASA San Antonio is leading the charge to provide school supplies to more than 1,000 underserved K-12 children in San Antonio — and HOLT is inviting all its employees, customers and partners to help in the cause. A cause HOLT has supported for nearly two decades.
The back-to-school supply drive is running through all of July. Supplies can be dropped off on Tuesdays and Thursdays between 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the CASA headquarters, or online through CASA’s Amazon wish list. The efforts of the community will help provide chromebooks, backpacks, notebooks, hand sanitizer, highlighters, crayons, pencils and various school supplies to hundreds of children in need.
“Foster children don’t often have choices in what they wear and the school backpacks that they have,” said CASA President and CEO Angela White. “The more school supplies we have, the more we are able to have more children go out with something that really belongs to them and they’ve been able to choose something as opposed to just being given it.
“It sounds like a small thing, but it really isn’t,” White continued. “They have very little control over where they live or whether they stay with a brother or sister. They have such little choices that the small things make that difference.”
CASA plays a unique role for kids in the foster care system. The organization seeks out volunteers who go through more than 30 hours of training before becoming court-appointed advocates who help oversee a child’s emotional and physical well-being.
The advocate is an extra set of eyes and ears who always has the child’s best interests in mind while they are going through the foster care process, according to Amanda Lara, who is one of two HOLT employees on the CASA Board of Directors
“You have to imagine a child that’s taken away from the only family that they’ve known. All of their belongings are put in a black trash bag. It’s everything that they own and care about, and they are taken to a home where they have no idea where they’re at,” said Lara.
“Many times their CASA advocate is the one person who stays with them and is there through thick and thin, and is their voice during their worst possible time of a child’s life,” she continued.
In a random sampling of 50 children who worked with their CASA advocates, 78% demonstrated vast improvements in their grades and academic performance. These results are thanks to a Herculean effort of 32,859 hours logged last year by CASA volunteers in Bexar County.
HOLT CAT has supported CASA in various ways over the years. Most recently, in February 2020, HOLT CAT was recognized as an Outstanding Philanthropic Corporation after CASA took over the company’s former training facility. The move allowed CASA to incorporate a larger space with more resources to train advocates.
“I’d like to express a huge thank you to HOLT. The building that we’re in and the care that their employees give to us, it’s just incredible,” White said. “They are an amazing local organization and we are delighted to work with them.”
School supply donations will be accepted through July. Donations can be dropped off on Tuesdays and Thursdays between 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the CASA headquarters located at 1956 S WW White Rd, San Antonio, TX 78222. Donations can also be made online through CASA’s Amazon wish list.
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