CASA Superheroes Fly High & Run Fast! On September 21st, more than 2,500 superheroes ran, walked and flew through our CASA Superhero Run 5K and Kids 1K to help raise over $155,000 for children in need in Travis and Williamson Counes! This record breaking total would not be possible without our top sponsors: KLRU-TV, Univision 62, KVET 98.1 FM, HealthTronics Inc, RetailMeNot Inc, teleNetwork, 360 Press Soluons, Mueller - A Catellus Development, Rogue Running and The Ausn Chronicle. We thank everyone who took part in this super event! See more photos and video at www.casasuperherorun.com. Save the date for CASAblanca and Golf! Visit www.casatravis.org/events to become a sponsor or purchase ckets for our excing spring fundraising events! Educational Advocacy Leads to a Family Happily Reunited When young Ben began showing up at school with bruises and injuries regularly and blamed it on his mother, his school reported it to Child Protecve Services (CPS) and Ben was removed from his mom’s care. From the beginning of the case, his mom was adamant that she hadn’t hurt Ben but that he caused these injuries, oſten scratching and hing himself. Her atude came off as abrasive and she developed adversarial relaonships with the school and everyone on the CPS case almost immediately. It wasn’t unl Stephanie became the CASA volunteer on this case that mom had someone who could really see her side. Stephanie pursued a relaonship with this mom more than anyone else, and was finally successful in building trust and open communicaon. Mom started telling her about Ben and his behavior, explaining that’s how he’d always been and that they had adjusted their household to keep things calm and roune for him. Ben was also ending up with very similar injuries in his foster home and was using the same language to blame his foster mom as he had his own mom. Stephanie advocated for him to receive a complete psychological evaluaon. Ben was diagnosed on the ausm spectrum as having Asperger’s Syndrome. His mom had been telling the truth about his injuries all along. Stephanie began working with Ben’s mom to build a support network for her family and secured special therapy sessions for her and Ben. His mom was advised to stay very acve in his educaon, yet the negave relaonship she had developed with his school had not been resolved and the school connued to distrust her. Stephanie knew that if something didn’t change for them, the school would connue to report her to CPS. She set up a meeng between Ben’s school and his mom to help mediate and improve their relaonship. During the meeng, Stephanie stressed how much both sides cared about Ben and only wanted what was best for him. She worked with each side to understand the other’s point of view. She helped to rephrase anything that came off as abrasive. This meeng was a turning point in Ben’s case. Ben was soon returned home and Stephanie connued to work with his mom and his school to set up a schedule of reporng difficules, find ways to address his special needs, determine how to get homework done and more. Her advocacy for Ben’s educaonal needs ulmately helped him return safely to his own family. www.casatravis.org The Anderson Foundaon Ausn Bar Foundaon Ausn Pain Associates Ann L. Benolken and Mark Engeling Jessica and Jimmy Blacklock Mary and Mathis Blackstock Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas Bose Family Foundaon Steve Brown Patricia Burgess and Doug Jeffries Bonita Griffith and David Chasis Clark Mente Architects, Inc. ConocoPhillips Company Yolanda and Chris Conyers Jamie and James Coon Dorothy and John De La Garza Michael & Susan Dell Foundaon Dr Pepper/Seven Up, Inc. Endo Pharmaceucals Inc. EZCorp, Inc. Ila and John Falvey First Presbyterian Church Fiserv Susanne and Chad Franks James N. Frinzi Frost Naonal Bank Grace Covenant Church Guardians of the Children - Ausn Chapter Tracy and Mahew Hamilton Kara and Jay Hartzell H-E-B G Herver and Brad Hermes Kris and Erik Hoover Kim and Kyle Hughes Jackson Walker LLP Jasper Design Automaon Kappa Alpha Theta - UT Chapter Dana and Kemp Kasling Kasling, Hemphill, Dolezal & Atwell, L.L.P. Korean Bapst Church of Ausn Barb Kowal and Nancy Walling Live Oak - Goesman LLC Local Independent Charies The Long Foundaon The Lowe Foundaon Mercedes-Benz of Ausn Kevin J. Middleton The Roy F. and Joann Cole Mie Foundaon Kennedy and John Neff Carolyn and Tom Nicewarner Greg Norrell Pfizer Foundaon Pos + Blacklock PLLC RetailMeNot, Inc. Joyce and Jack Sampson Catherine and Charles Sansbury Gina and Buddy Schroeder Seton Healthcare Network si2 Silicon Laboratories Sno-Beach Spredfast St. Thomas More Catholic Church Beth and Frank Stabile Superior HealthPlan Tela Innovaons, Inc. teleNetwork Partners, Ltd. David E. Thon Topfer Family Foundaon Janelle and Ken Treaccar United Heritage Credit Union Urban Maress South Ausn Capital City Post #8787 VFW Nancy H. Webber Paul Zito Thank you to our major donors ($1,000 and up) between April 16th and October 15th, 2013 December 2013 ASABLANCA February 22nd, 2014 Hya Regency Ausn May 5th, 2014 The Hills Country Club