John Hess was recruited to be a CASA volunteer by his wife who heard about the organization in her Soroptimist club. “She really wanted to become a CASA volunteer and thought it would be something we could do together. The rest is history.”
John was immediately impressed with what he learned in training. “My professional background is in science so learning about the juvenile justice system was new for me. There is a great amount of time and effort put in by both volunteers and staff to help the children in it. I was immediately excited to be a part of it.”
Because John and his wife, Katherine Hess, are CASA volunteers together, they chose a sibling pair. “We felt that we could do some visits together and some apart and that it would be a good mix.” He fondly remembers one of the visits. “I wanted to take my kid to see the new Star Wars movie and my wife thought she would take hers out to a few different places while the movie was on. Little did I know it was a three hour movie so they got creative about how to fill the time. It was fun to hear about their adventures and my kid was thrilled to see the movie.”
Another activity he remembers fondly is taking his CASA child out to golf. “He had never tried golfing before and wasn’t sure about it but he ended up really liking it. I told him you learn a lot about patience, confidence, and yourself when you try new things and now we try to think of different new experiences we can have together.”
John and his CASA child have been together now for about six months. He says they are still in the “getting to know one another” stage and that chatting about dogs is a common connection. “We both have dogs that we love and I can always get him talking when I bring up our pets.”
John looks forward to getting to know his CASA child more and getting deeper into the CASA experience. “I just realized a friend of mine is also a CASA volunteer. It’s nice to have that shared connection that we didn’t realize we had. The continuing education at the Yolo County CASA office is not only good for learning more but it also fosters a nice sense of community building around volunteers with a common goal.”
