Candles in paper bags lit the streets of Fairfax City and dark clouds threatened overhead Sunday evening as about 150 people — mostly volunteers for children in the court system and their families — gathered on the lawn outside Fairfax City Hall. The volunteers were part of the Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) program assembled to mark the Light of Hope ceremony, designed to draw attention to abused and neglected children in Fairfax County.
After spending the afternoon listening to a children's singer, eating popcorn and relaxing on the lawn, the volunteers and their families lined up to march down Chain Bridge Road to the Fairfax Court House. Fairfax City Police stopped traffic as the marchers made their way silently holding penlights past 550 candles — one for each child currently being served — that lined the streets.
Karen Anderson of Fairfax, one of the CASA volunteers, joined the procession with her husband Wayne and their daughters Sarah, 3, and Kate, 7.
"I think it's just a great, great cause," said Anderson, a former child care worker who has been involved with the program since the last fall. "It was the best volunteer program that I could find."
CASA volunteers are appointed by a judge in cases of possible child abuse and neglect. Their role is to interview everyone involved in the case — including the child, the parents, teachers and social workers — and report to the judge on what they believe the best course of action would be. Sometimes the judge will decide to send the child to foster care, and sometimes he or she will opt to keep the child with the family. In a way, the county's 200 CASA volunteers are the judge's eyes and ears in the case.
"Every representative for the child has some sort of agenda they're striving for," said Barry Brown, a CASA volunteer from Springfield. "And the judge wants to do what's best for the child."
Brown's daughter Alexis, a volunteer herself said: "We just want what we think is best."
ONCE THE MARCH reached the Court House, volunteers lit candles and listened to speeches.
"We can't save the world with a set of laws, but we can save the world one kid at a time," said U.S. Rep. Tom Davis (R-11th), who attended the march with his fiancee, state Sen. Jeannemarie Devolites (R-34th). "We're here because what you do is important, more important than all the legislation we pass."
Glenn Downer of Fairfax said he became a volunteer because he "felt called to help children, the vulnerable ones."
"The community's been good to me, and it's time to pay back a bit," he said.
"You have to like kids," said Alexis Brown. "It's not very hard to like kids."