Students will serve as advocates for neglected and abused children as they and provide arts, crafts and fun for those children in the second annual Fun with Friends Fair this Saturday.
The fair will be held at Eastham-Thomason Park, and is the brainchild of Miki Henderson Ed.D., assistant professor of early childhood education at Sam Houston State University.
She decided to bring the fair to Huntsville last year as a way to raise awareness about Court Appointed Special Advocates in Walker County.
It is an organization of volunteers that provides help and support for abandoned, abused and neglected children and works with social workers and the court system to find a better home for them.
"In CASA, we get the worst of the worst cases of children who have been abused physically or sexually," Henderson said. "[Volunteers] become guardians, advocates, and get to know the children in order to help them."
Students from the Optimist Club at SHSU, Bilingual Education Student Organization and several sororities and fraternities will volunteer to provide games, arts and crafts and food booths for attendees of the fair and help raise money for CASA in a raffle for two mountain bikes.
Henderson said the fair will not only be a big help for CASA, but also a learning experience for future teachers.
"Lots of students who are affluent will be able to gain empathy for children who have not had the same opportunities they have had," Henderson said. "It's important for them, as future teachers to be understanding and empathetic of these children in schools."
Last year, the Fun with Friends Fair was held at the Johnson Coliseum. Although it was successful, Henderson said it was expensive to pay for and took away a lot of the profit that could have gone to CASA.
This year, with the fair being held at the park, Henderson said more of the profit will go to help CASA.
Also new this year, instead of an entry fee, attendees can buy individual tickets to participate in the games and activities.
Henderson said that although the fair serves to raise awareness for CASA, it is important for students to gain volunteer experience.
"My hope is that students get a great feeling for volunteering in the future and become fabulous citizens who volunteer after leaving here," she said.
The Fun with Friends fair will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday. Tickets for games and activities are 25 cents and raffle tickets are $1. All proceeds will go to benefit CASA.
For more information about CASA visit their website at http://casaofwalkercounty.org/.
This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.
17/02/2021 - 0 Comments
0 意見:
Post a Comment