Why Are There Cardboard Cutouts of Children In Front of 937 Broadway?

By: Revonda Kirby

If you have driven down Broadway and seen cardboard cutouts of children swaying in the wind (between Blimpies and Burrito Ville) and wondered what they were and why they were there...now you have your answer. CASA, Court Appointed Special Advocates for Children is located in the building behind those children. The twenty-three children are representative of the two-hundred and thirty children in state custody during 2008 in the 32nd Judicial Circuit of Bollinger, Cape Girardeau and Perry Counties. Imagine if we had placed 230 of them on the lawn --what a spectacle that would be! Now let reality hit -- there are 230 real, living, breathing, special children in our counties that have been hurt and neglected and need our help! One of our current CASA Volunteers has shared that she was always told that there was nothing you could do to help children in these terrible situations. Then she heard about CASA and heard the stories of real children living lives of hope due to the caring individuals in their life. We cannot "undo" what has been done to these children but we can make a difference. For more information, go to www.capecasa.com and to www.nationalcasa.org and read about the "Forgotten Children Campaign".