Thursday, July 13, 2000

Woman heals while helping others in need

Burns

Valerie Burns was sitting in a pew glancing over a church bulletin after services one Sunday when one particular name and phone number caught her attention.
   The ad was for an organization she'd never heard of - Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of Nueces County Inc. Immediately, Burns said, she got the message and wasted no time acting on the revelation.
   "I was touched emotionally," recalls Burns, 38, and I knew that that was meant for me to see."
   Revisiting her past
   The following morning, Burns was on the phone with CASA volunteers, sharing information that had taken her more than 15 years to reveal to her own mother and family. Burns had long since come to terms with the sexual abuse a male family member subjected her to when she was between the ages of 10 and 13. She found the courage at age 26 to finally tell her mother.
   This time, Burns, now married and with a family of her own, was revisiting her past for the sake of helping children experiencing abuse or neglect in their own lives. Two months later, with paperwork, criminal background check and training completed, Burns became part of a group of trained volunteers who investigate state child-protection cases and testify in court on whether children removed from their homes and placed in foster care should be returned to their parents.
   Two years later, Burns is still with the organization, using her life experiences and her CASA expertise to train new recruits, including the 12 volunteers sworn in two weeks ago. The new recruits have enabled the organization to expand its services to San Patricio and Aransas counties and shoot for a new goal: To advocate in court on behalf of 250 children in Nueces County and 60 in the two other counties.
   "It isn't easy," Burns admits, "but I don't walk away because I never lose sight of the fact that I am there for the children. You have to be strong for them."
   A valuable addition
   Burns' sincere determination and meticulous detective work have proven valuable to the CASA organization, said Burns' supervisor, Trisha Del Bosque, a casework coordinator.
   "I remember going out with her to a home visit," Del Bosque said. "The family wasn't there, but she didn't give up. She thought of different places that the parent might be and pursued it. She is the kind of woman who doesn't take no for an answer. She does what she needs to get things done right."
   Burns acknowledges that, in the beginning, she feared getting too emotionally wrapped up in her cases.
   "The primary thing you hear from people is that they're afraid of getting too emotional. To the point they'll want to adopt them all. I feared the same things. But you realize you can't stop your life and adopt all these kids.
   "I know I can't change the world. Just like I wish the things that happened to me hadn't. But they did. I can't rewrite that. But I'm a strong person with a survivor's instincts, and I've chosen to create something positive out of what I've lived through."
  
 

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  © 2000 Corpus Christi Caller Times, a Scripps Howard newspaper. All rights reserved.