Volunteer Spotlight on Maggie Waitts

By Laura Warne
Communications Coordinator

Maggie Waitts’ first visit with her CASA teenagers was rough, to say the least.

Two years ago, Maggie, who is January’s volunteer of the month, was assigned to her first volunteer case: 16 and 17-year-old sisters. Maggie’s first visit was at the girls’ new foster home. One of the teens spent the entire visit facing the wall and playing on her cell phone.  The older girl was sweet, but somewhat standoffish.

“It was like that for many, many months,” Maggie said.

Maggie may have been frustrated, but she didn’t complain. Instead of throwing in the towel on these two severely traumatized girls, she remembered why the sisters were acting out in this way. 

“These kids have been through a lot in their lives,” she said.

So what did Maggie do? How did she handle the situation with her new CASA kids?

“I just kept showing up,” she said.

Maggie began visiting the sisters twice per month and between visits, she communicated regularly with their school counselors to monitor their education.

“Little by little they came around and saw that I wasn’t going anywhere,” Maggie said. 

Now, Maggie meets with the teenagers at least once per week. With Maggie’s advocacy, one girl has become fully independent and the other is living with a family member. They are both on a path to a safe, happy, and healthy future.

“It’s such a blessing, these two children in my life,” Maggie said. 

Besides spending time with the teens, Maggie’s favorite part of being a CASA is representing the girls’ best interests at court during their hearings.  

“Once we’re in there, I feel like I’m there for these kids. I’m there to make sure that what they need comes across.”

During the court hearings, Maggie has noticed that she and other CASA volunteers often have the most up-to-date and accurate information about their assigned cases and children, which helps the Family Court Judge make the best decisions about the children’s futures.

Maggie joined CASA after first learning about the volunteer position while serving on jury duty in Essex County. As the presenter explained the CASA role to the jury pool, Maggie sat up straight and wide eyed, and eagerly asked for a brochure with more information. However, at that time, she was running her own business and working 10 - 12 hours per day; being a CASA volunteer just wasn’t in the cards then.

When Maggie retired, she finally had free time. Maybe a little too much free time.

 “I was thinking, ‘What am I going to do with my life?’” she said. 

A chance meeting with another CASA volunteer reminded Maggie about how excited she was when she learned about CASA at jury duty. Maggie ran home and filled out the application later that same day.

Thanks to jury duty, Maggie’s retirement has taken on new life. 

“Being a CASA volunteer has been one of the most rewarding experiences,” she said.

When she’s not volunteering with CASA, Maggie spends time with her two dogs, Sophie and Lucas, at her home in North Caldwell and mentors other women as part of a twelve-step program.

The Power of Tenacity and Consistency: Volunteer Spotlight on Lisa Ingersoll

“It is rewarding to be able to say I changed a child’s life for the better. It is the best feeling in the world.” This is how Passaic County CASA’s October 2019 Volunteer of the Month Lisa Ingersoll summarizes her experience serving as a Court Appointed Special Advocate for two boys in foster care.

Prior to meeting Lisa, the two boys were removed from home because of their parents’ struggles with drug addiction. From there they were placed in the homes of an aunt and a cousin, followed by two successive foster homes, and ultimately with their older half-sister. By the time Lisa met the brothers, the older boy had been enrolled in five different schools over the course of one year, which seriously affected his academic progress. Throughout second grade he struggled to keep up and his teachers began to talk about holding him back.  

Thankfully, Lisa was able to jump into action. She campaigned for him to get an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) and additional classroom support. She also pushed for him to receive tutoring over the summer in his weakest subject: math. As a result, he was able to continue on to third grade alongside his peers.

Throughout this time, the boys transitioned through six different Division of Child Protection and Permanency caseworkers. Lisa was able to be a consistent advocate for the boys, together with their older half-sister, who has filed paperwork to officially adopt them. Lisa is looking forward to attending their adoption ceremony later this year. She also looks forward to taking on a new case and being able to make a difference in another child’s life.

Lisa’s path to becoming a Court Appointed Special Advocate was far from direct. This busy mother of three from Upper Montclair juggled family life and a 20-year career in marketing at a New York ad agency. When the demands of both home and work grew too much, she left her job in the city. Unsure about what to do next, she saw an ad for the then brand-new Montclair Film Festival and volunteered her marketing expertise. Over time, as the Festival grew, she assumed a staff role as Co-Director of Marketing. This left a void in terms of volunteering, which Lisa believes is important to do as much as possible. A friend told her about CASA, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Being a CASA isn’t always easy, Lisa admits, and it requires tenacity to do the job effectively. But having worked for twenty years in the challenging New York marketing field, tenacity is a skill she developed long ago. Lisa loves being able to see firsthand the impact she’s made. Plus, Lisa said, “When I go to visit the boys and they run to greet me, it is so wonderful. There’s nothing like it.”

Eight Years and Going Strong: Volunteer Spotlight on Pat Hoffman

When Pat Hoffman was a child, her mother worked as the cashier in Pat’s school cafeteria. Pat distinctly remembers that when certain children got to the front of the line and approached the cash register, her mom would discreetly send them through. The children were on the free lunch program but her mother wanted to preserve their dignity. This lesson in compassion stuck with Pat and led her to pursue a variety of volunteer experiences over the years, particularly those involving children.

Fast forward to 2011. Pat saw an ad about CASA in the local newspaper and has been a CASA volunteer ever since. Over the past eight years, Pat has served as an advocate on seven cases, two of which she’s still active on. In 2012, Pat was assigned to advocate for a nine-year-old girl, who is now 17. Over the course of those seven years, the girl has lived in a staggering twelve placements. To say that Pat has been able to bring some much-needed stability to this girl’s life is an understatement.  Pat is the person she consistently turns to when she needs help, whether it is settling into a new group home and understanding the rules, managing her emotions, or just having someone to talk to. Recently, Pat has started to advocate for services that will prepare the teenager for independent living when she ages out of foster care next year.

Pat knows her ability to sustain a commitment over the long haul is one of her greatest strengths as a volunteer. It is what has allowed her to watch this young woman grow up, which Pat cites as one of her most rewarding experiences as a CASA volunteer. Another was last November’s Adoption Day, when she got to witness the adoption of two of her CASA children in the Passaic County Courthouse. 

Pat will be the first to tell you that volunteering as a CASA doesn’t come with a guarantee that the work will end up “tied in a bow after eighteen months.”

“It is a commitment,” she says, “but not one that is overwhelming. I wish more people would do it.”

Experience Meets Compassion: Marion Brady, CASA Volunteer of the Month

By Laura Warne
Communications Coordinator

Marion Brady has always been committed to volunteer service; giving back was instilled in her at a young age by her parents. However, as a self-professed “shy person,” speaking up and asserting herself while working on her CASA case was a challenge at first.

Now, with eight years of experience under her belt, Marion speaks confidently about how she approaches issues on her current and recent cases. As soon as she realizes a child is struggling in school, for example, she doesn’t hesitate to contact the child’s teachers and school special education team. She enjoys connecting with professionals who are equally committed to a child’s success, and appreciates the satisfaction of seeing people come together for the sake of a child.

Marion grew up in Baltimore and then earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees at Harvard and the University of Toronto. Years later, Marion was a copy editor at a busy type-setting house, where she proofread French and Spanish translations for a variety of professional publications. Retirement was on the horizon when a friend mentioned that she was volunteering at CASA of Essex County, and shared with Marion that she’d be good at the CASA role. Marion channeled her love of children into training at the then-brand new Passaic County CASA and was sworn in in January 2011.

Since then, Marion has served on nine cases until completion. Her most recent case closed this past April, when a girl she was advocating for was adopted. Adoption days are always happy occasions, and this one was no exception. The joy of seeing a family officially come together is something Marion can personally attest to, as she adopted her own son through the NJ state system 46 years ago.

On her cases, Marion worked closely with the foster parents. She cites a deep appreciation for the challenges foster parents face when caring for their children. Between doctor appointments, therapists, school meetings, and all the other services a child might require, the demands these parents face can be significant. Thankfully, Marion is able to bring her considerable experience and compassion to each and every family, all with the end goal of protecting and promoting the best interest of children.

There in the Beginning and the End: Sharon Brown, May 2019 CASA Volunteer of the Month

By Laura Warne
Communications Coordinator

Consistency and dedication – the perfect two words to describe May’s CASA Volunteer of the Month, Sharon Brown.

Sharon has been a CASA volunteer since 2015, and in that time, she’s been an advocate for six children on six cases. Sharon’s service to children in foster care follows a nearly forty-two year career in pharmaceuticals, where she helped oversee the complicated process of getting life-saving medications approved and available for patient use. When retirement began to approach, Sharon decided she was ready to take on new challenges, and the steady patience she once applied to her work in pharmaceuticals was transferred to helping children succeed and thrive despite difficult times at home.

While each of her cases has been special for different reasons, Sharon cites her first case as the one that has had the greatest impact on her. She started as the CASA for a young boy, Kevin*, and was there for him during a difficult period of gained-then-lost custody with his biological mother. Understandably frustrated during a very uncertain process, Kevin told Sharon how much he hated his mother. In her rational and steady way, Sharon asked him to tell her the reasons why he felt that way. After Kevin was unable to list more than two reasons, she could see that his outlook on his mother softened.

This anecdote illustrates Sharon’s even-keeled approach when it comes to the children and families on her cases. No matter the situation, Sharon is known for displaying great diplomacy and effectively maintaining open lines of communication between all parties, even when it isn’t easy. For a period of time, Kevin’s biological mother didn’t have a cell phone, so the only way Sharon could communicate with her was to be ready at a moment’s notice to meet her in-person. While most people would not – or could not – be so accommodating, Sharon knew that regular communication with the boy’s mother was essential to remaining informed about her progress and recovery. So she did what was needed to achieve that end.

Sharon was thrilled to see Kevin’s eventual adoption by his resource parent, and has enjoyed watching him grow into a precocious and creative youth, who excels in school and loves to draw. A few years later, Kevin’s mother gave birth to a second baby boy, Damon*, and Sharon didn’t hesitate to take on his case as well. Happily, the same resource parent who adopted Kevin also adopted Damon, and so the brothers will grow up together in the same home. As is always the case with Sharon, she’s been someone that the boys have been able to count on in good times and bad. Indeed, Sharon’s case supervisor Sarah During sums up the consistency of Sharon’s volunteer service by saying, “She’s the person who is there in the beginning. And she’s still there at the end.”

* names have been changed to protect privacy