Alyssa ConradMembers of each University of Mississippi sorority participated in a dance competition on Oct. 6 and raised over $200,000 for Court Appointed Special Advocates of North Mississippi.
CASA is an organization with a mission to utilize trained, court-appointed community volunteers to advocate for abused and neglected children. They strive to provide each child with a safe and permanent home.
CASA Encore, one of the biggest fundraising efforts put on by the organization, is a four-week event on campus that ends with a dance competition between the sororities. Over the weeks, each sorority also competes to raise money for the organization and to get people to donate blood.The event has provided CASA with the funds to grow their programs and add more services.
“It has allowed us to help more children and expand into a new building where we can visit with the children in our new visitation playroom,” Erin Smith, founding executive director of CASA of North Mississippi, said. “We have a computer room that will be a space for children to get tutoring, apply for jobs and colleges and complete their GED program when needed.”
CASA Encore was founded by the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority at the university as Theta Encore. After the UM chapter disbanded in 2018, the panhellenic community renamed the event CASA Encore.
The event has become a tradition at UM, with chapters of the panhellenic community participating for more than 20 years.
Sororities hold dance practices for weeks leading up to the event and encourage the rest of the UM community to participate by donating money and blood to the cause, as well as buying a ticket to watch the competition.
This year, Kappa Delta won the dance competition portion of CASA Encore. Kappa Kappa Gamma came in second place and Delta Gamma came in third.
Delta Gamma won the overall CASA Encore competition with the highest number of points in total. These points came from a combination of the dance competition, amount of money raised and number of people who donated blood on behalf of Delta Gamma.
“Being able to raise so much money for such an important cause while also having so much fun just shows how amazing CASA is,” Delta Gamma freshman and criminal justice major Molly Hardy said.
The three sororities who raised the largest amount of money for CASA of North Mississippi are Pi Beta Phi with $54,512, Delta Gamma with $52,319 and Alpha Phi with $21,261. The grand total raised by the entire panhellenic community was $201,464.
The funds raised are of great benefit to the children and families who benefit from the work CASA does in North Mississippi.
“Our goals are always to raise awareness about what we do and hope that we have moved someone enough for them to want to be involved with our organization because we can’t do the work we do without volunteers,” Smith said. “We hope we achieved that goal. It’s not just about the money, but about getting our mission out to those who may not know what we do. We could not do that without this event.”
Anyone can learn more about volunteering for CASA of North Mississippi on their website here.
