Karen Kerr receives the 2022 Patricia Wagner CASA Volunteer of the Year Award

Karen’s CASA story began when she served on the Foster Care Review Board. As she learned about the impact a CASA could make on a case, her desire to become a CASA grew. On May 9, 2013, Karen was sworn in as a CASA Volunteer in Gratiot County.

For the past nine and a half years, Karen has been assigned to five cases and has advocated for 12 children. Karen has traveled well over 13,000 miles to ensure a child has his or her voice heard. For the past 59 months, Karen has spent more than 2,830 hours on case-related activities. For the past 35 months (which includes a global pandemic), she attended 279 child visits, medical appointments, school meetings, and parenting visits. 

The CASA Volunteer of the Year award is named in honor of Patricia Wagner, a previous Executive Director and founding member of Michigan CASA.   Pat worked tirelessly to open new programs, work with legislators, and support the mission of our work.  Her laugh was infectious and there were seemingly no strangers in her life.

The name of our network of CASA programs is "MCPAT," which is, of course, a play on her name, and stands for Michigan CASA Program Affiliates Team.

 Pat passed away in 2010 while building Michigan CASA. Her legacy lives on through each of the 799 volunteers currently serving children in the state of Michigan.