flights and kites

For the past few months, a handful of some of my alumni sorority sisters and I have been getting together to plan our first (and hopefully) annual Wine Tasting Event.  We are so excited about it and may be more excited to have the first one under our belts!

We have so many fun things planned: a live band, lots of good food, and obviously tons of booze.  We have 12 different kinds of wine to sample along with food paired along with each of those wines, and, if you're not a wine lover, we're also providing beer, just in case. 

So come already!  What are you waiting for!  Your RSVP is due on Saturday!  Or you can show up the day of for $10 more, but it would make my life a lot easier if you'd let us know beforehand so that we have enough alcohol to get you nice and buzzed.

Oh, and did I forget to mention that the proceeds of this event go to one of my favorite organizations ever?

When I joined my house in college, the philanthropy that we work with sold me on which house I was going to join.  For real.  I kind of knew that I'd be a Theta before I even went through recruitment, but when I learned about CASA, I knew that no matter what happened with the whole sorority thing, that I had to be a volunteer.

CASA, or Court Appointed Special Advocate's volunteer to help children involved in the court system.  During my four years at college I had six kiddos that I met with on a regular basis to hang out, get to know them and to figure out if their parents, basically, were fit to be their parents.

It, at times broke my heart to hear the stories that these kids would tell me.  Show the kids some love and they open right up... 

I remember one specific incident where I was taking the kids shopping at Target.  While getting out of the vehicle and attempting to get the kids out of their car seats one of the younger ones started screaming as his older brother and I came around the other side of the vehicle to get him out.  I'm sure it's because he was used to being left alone and he thought that I was going to leave him in the car while I went shopping. 

Other times there was evidence of abuse.

CASA volunteers get to know these kids on a very personal level and then write a court report that is given to the judges at hearings.  Because social workers don't have time to attend to every child as much as they'd like to, the CASA court reports tend to be the child's only voice in the court system. 

So, even if you can't make it, think about making a donation so that we can help more of those kids in the court system.  Contact me if you want more information or if you need to know who to make your check payable to!