Santa Barbara Foster Care Advocate Takes Message to the Streets

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This week, you can join a parade down State Street in support of children without homes. The October 29 event is being led by the Santa Barbara chapter of Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA), whose mission is to find new families for parentless children and provide trained volunteers to advocate for them in the court system. That Wednesday, they will spur the Santa Barbara community to action with the national CASA association 's Forgotten Children Campaign exhibit, which began with a dramatic flair at the Washington Monument in our country's capital on May 19 and has worked its way to the West Coast.

Beginning in the afternoon at about 3:30 p.m., the procession will march down State Street holding 850 life-size cardboard displays of children, each one representing a child who’s forced into the foster care system in the United States every day — that adds up to nearly 6,000 in a single week. The parade will end at the Courthouse Sunken Gardens where participants will then spread the life-size displays across the lawn to bring attention the foster care system.

CASA is cosponsoring this event alongside a number of organizations and donors, including the Santa Barbara Foundation, Hutton Foundation, Venoco, Condor Express, Montecito Bank & Trust, and the Prenatt family. A variety of nonprofits will have booths set up at the Sunken Gardens for people to peruse while enjoying the famous father-son musical duo Kenny and Crosby Loggins, who will be playing as part of the afternoon's festivities.

Check in for the event will be between 2:30 and 3:30 p.m. at De la Guerra Plaza, and the parade is scheduled from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. The concert will begin shortly after that. CASA hopes to have the same impact here as it did in Washington, D.C., so come join the movement and help raise awareness about children in the foster care system.

For more information on how to participate contact M.J. Franco at (805) 879-1730 or mj@sbcasa.org.

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