EDINBURG — There was scarcely a free seat at CASA of Hidalgo County’s 27th annual Child Abuse Prevention candlelight vigil Thursday evening.
Dozens made the walk from CASA’s headquarters on 10th to the steps of city hall, a symbolic trek made in solidarity with victims of child abuse.
There wasn’t any candlelight — the wind saw to that — but there were addresses, a moment of silence and a bell tolling.
Perhaps most importantly, the Court Appointed Special Advocates vigil gave the varied groups of people who work with victims of child abuse together in one spot.
It looked like a formidable force.
There were police officers, of course. A sitting district attorney and a soon to be sitting district attorney. There were volunteers, like those from CASA and the rugged looking posse of members from Bikers Against Child Abuse, who followed the walkers wearing leather vests and riding motorcycles.
There were also community members, some of them attorneys or family members of abuse victims.
“It’s so happy to see people working together through the pandemic, even in the pandemic,” Sandra Lisa Martinez, an attorney who works as a court appointed child attorney representing children as attorney ad litem or guardian ad litem, said.
A person who works with child abuse cases inevitably encounters tragedy, Martinez said.
“A lot of them will be removed as an emergency, so they will come out with nothing,” she said. “They may come out of their homes in the diaper there in; some of them don’t have clothes, they don’t have food.”
Oftentimes, Martinez said, victims of child abuse are at risk of seeing their misfortunes snowball. Those children will need food and clothes and toys. They need a place to stay, and perhaps a foster family. Even older children often find themselves in a tough spot.
“At 18, if they’re out the door, they don’t have a security deposit,” Martinez said. “So we just want to send them off the best we can, however we can.”
CASA Executive Director Veronica Whitacre said the goal of the event was to honor children who lost their lives to child abuse, along with children who’ve been abused or neglected.
The goal was also to raise awareness about child abuse. Frequently, Whitacre said, residents in the area underestimate how many of those victims there are locally.
“We don’t have a few; we have quite a few,” she said. “Lots of people don’t even know CASA exists in Hidalgo County, and it’s important for these children to have permanency, to have safety. To get a hug from someone who actually loves them.”
This year, CASA started out inviting partners to the vigil. Before long, Whitacre said, CASA was getting calls from even more groups who wanted to take part.
“Then we started getting calls, because they told people and those people wanted to come,” she said. “It’s a blessing for our children, because people want to work and they want to help.”
Anyone interested in helping CASA can visit their website at https://casaofhidalgo.com.
