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Car raffle benefits local CASA office
Thursday, Sep 29, 2016
- ANGELA BRANDT Independent Record, Helena, MT
Several months ago, when Travis Lewis decided to move to Montana, a place he'd never previously been, he didn't see anything resembling his home state of Virginia. That was until he went to the Helena Farmers' Market over the summer, where he saw a table for a familiar child-advocate organization called CASA.
"Everything else is different, but the one thing that was familiar was CASA," the 19-year-old said. He decided to support the court-appointed advocate program by buying a $10 raffle ticket for a car. It paid off.
"I'm really excited," said Lewis, who moved to Helena about seven months ago and works for TruGreen lawn care.
"It's a little overwhelming. It's very generous."
After being introduced to the program by CASA advocates, Chevrolet of Helena employees decided to donate the car to be raffled. Brian Sundelius, general manager of the dealership, said this is one of four donated cars this year.
About $2,500 was made to support the organization, which serves children in Lewis and Clark and Broadwater Counties who have experienced abuse and neglect and are in the district court system.
"We lucked out," said Dennis Molnar, executive director of CASA of Lewis and Clark and Broadwater counties.
The money will bolster the other fundraisers, which include an annual April banquet.
"We look for whatever we can to be able to expand the financial piece," Molnar said of the nonprofit. "It's all fundraising."
"It was a real plus for us to be able to do this," he added.
The Helena office, like the other 14 in the state, works directly with the children and their cases while the state office serves as support. Statewide last year, 620 active volunteers served more than 2,000 abused and neglected children in Montana, a 28 percent increase over 2014.
Locally, more than 200 children in the child-protection system have been served by a CASA advocate. So far in 2016, the Helena group has taken on 74 new cases.
Currently, about 25 local children are without advocates. Molnar said the raffle also assisted in raising awareness and enlisting potential volunteers.
"It got us not just donation dollars, but people," he said.
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