In 1985, I was a young pediatrician having moved to New Braunfels four years earlier. As I occasionally had patients who were abused or neglected, I had been asked to serve on the Child Welfare Board. The Board worked closely with the child welfare workers who were responsible for supervising the care of the foster children. Many of them had been placed in foster care by the courts because of abuse or neglect.
I was a member of a group from the Child Welfare Board and District Attorney’s office that was tasked with forming the Children’s Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) organization here in Comal County. Over the last 40 years, CASA has grown from a small group of trained volunteers to a group that serves four counties with special advocates that help children navigate the court system and the conflicts that they are engulfed in. This group has aided countless children during these four decades and I am proud and honored to have played a small part in its formation.