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MORGANTOWN - The CASA for Kids organization wants to send you on a wild goose chase later this month.
Well, check that, Brandi Wolfe said.
Try a fun, beneficial goose chase, instead - said Wolfe, who is board chair of the endeavor that serves as an advocate for children in need across Monongalia and Preston counties.
The "Community Goose Chase" for CASA will be from 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Aug. 29, she said.
It's an interactive, app-driven exercise that will launch at Granville Park and send teams across the greater Morgantown area.
The "Family Friendly" experience runs from 10 a.m.-noon, followed by lunch at 12:15 p.m., served up by The Rev's Brisket and Barbecue.
After that, the adults-only experience settles in from 1:30-4:30 p.m.
Registration is $75 per team for the family-friendly proceedings and $100 for the adult portion of the goose chase.
Visit www.casaforkidsmpc.org for more information, including CASA's history and philosophy.
Meanwhile, all participants during the Aug. 29 event will decipher digital clues as they travel throughout the area - earning points and learning about iconic points of interest in the University City.
"Well, of course, there's going to be an educational component," chuckled Wolfe, who teaches reading and language arts at Westwood Middle School.
CASAs, as said, are the court-appointed special advocates who plant their feet for society's youngest victims.
Wolfe has been on the board of Morgantown's CASA for four years, but the teacher's schooling with the organization began way before that.
She first made her acquaintance with CASA as a foster parent a few years back.
"We couldn't have done it without their support," she said, of that experience.
For a child, she said, going into the foster journey can be "scary and traumatic," as the young person on the receiving end is often uprooted without ceremony.
Consider that common in the Mountain State.
Depending upon which report you read, you'll learn that there are nearly 6,000 children in foster care in West Virginia, give or take.
This, in a state with a total population of just 1.7 million people.
Right before the pandemic in 2020, according to numerous watchdog sources, the state of West Virginia was investigating 5,235 cases of child abuse and neglect.
And the year before that, it was even worse - with 5,975 reports of the same.
Each number is an actual breathing person, she said, who is unknowing of what's going to happen next.
"They're being taken away from their families, their possessions and their hobbies," she said. "Sometimes, they have to change schools."
In contrast, a highly trained CASA volunteer, she said, provides a solid mooring - in the midst of the chaos.
"A CASA volunteer is the consistent, supportive adult," Wolfe said.