(As submitted by Friends of Wood County CASA Board)
Please plan on attending to support the Friends of Wood County CASA Board who will be holding the Karen Swartz Memorial 5K Run/Family Walk on Saturday, October 8, starting at 8:00 am at the Rossford Recreation Center, 400 Dixie Highway. This year’s 5 K Run will wind through Rossford, beginning and ending at the Rec Center.
The Friends of Wood County CASA Board is a nonprofit organization which lends support to the Wood County Court Appointed Special Advocate/Guardian ad litem program through promoting community awareness, fund raising, and monitoring the fiscal needs of the organization.
This community event is to commemorate the memory of Karen Swartz. In addition to being a teacher, coach, advisor, dean of students, and athletic director at Rossford High School, Karen made a great contribution to the Wood Co CASA/GAL program by serving as a CASA/GAL volunteer and then volunteer coordinator for ten years.
The walk is a wonderful tribute to Karen Swartz, according to her daughter, Karrie Failor, who is a Wood County Friends of CASA Board Member. But even better is the opportunity to bring awareness to the needs of CASA and to promote more volunteerism so more children can be served, Failor said.
This event, which began in 2011, has drawn between 125-175 attendees each year. This will be the first year that a 5 K Run option will be available. Participants will have the option to run, run/walk, or walk.
In 2016, with the assistance of 35 volunteers, the Wood County CASA program has served the voices of 113 neglected and a used children in the Wood County Juvenile Court system.
The Friends of Wood County CASA Board hopes to use this event to raise community awareness and recruit additional volunteers in order to ensure that these victims of neglect and abuse are given a safe, permanent home.
For additional information on the program or the Friends Board, please check out our website @
www.woodcountycasa.org
For information on this year’s Run/Walk and to register, please click the link to the October races on http://daves running.com/runsignup/
