Annual John Zahr Memorial Golf Tournament Raised $48,000 for Endowment

We had over 30 teams and 19 sponsors gather at the Passaconaway Country Club on September 17 for a 18-hole tournament to benefit CASA’s endowment fund in honor of John Zahr, President of Harvey Construction and longtime supporter of CASA.

In its ninth year, the tournament raised $48,000. Since its inception, it has raised a total of $457,000, the net proceeds of which have been contributed to CASA’s endowment fund named in John’s memory. This year, three teams and one individual donated all of their winnings back to CASA, giving an additional $1,650. Thank you to first place team Harvey Construction, second place team Charron LLC, third place team Empire Sheet Metal, and Tony Brock of Longchamps Electric for your generous donations!

The tournament was created in 2011 in the year following John’s untimely death, when his friends and colleagues came together to establish this tournament as a way to give back to CASA, a charity John was passionate about. Each year, a committee of his peers reaches out to businesses and friends for sponsorships and players to hit the links in memory of their friend.

“Many of you have been coming here for a long time, and we’re really grateful for the support,” said Marty Sink, President and CEO of CASA of New Hampshire. “The efforts from this tournament over the last nine years have raised over $450,000 for CASA.”

Thank you to all of our sponsors:Fulcrum, Longchamps Electric, Miller Engineering & Testing Inc., Kaloutas Painting, Granite State Plumbing & Heating, Reliable Equipment, The Milestone Group at Morgan Stanley, Redimix Companies, Academy Roofing, JDS Flooring Associates, Reliable Automatic Sprinkler Co., SNHU Arena, Daltile, Harvey Construction Corp., Galaxy Glass & Aluminum Inc., Belletetes Building Materials, Fred & Jill Urtz, and Kevin & Debbie Duffy.

Manchester Training Graduates 12 Advocates, 1 Staff Member

CASA of New Hampshire recently graduated 12 new advocates and 1 new staff member in Manchester this January. These 13 individuals completed 40 hours of pre-service training and will now begin advocating for children in the system that need a voice in court.

The 40 hours of training is broken into ten units. These units prepare new CASAs to preform difficult tasks that they’ll be facing in the process of advocating the child’s best interests. As a CASA, they will be going to court, counseling sessions, parent or IEP meetings. Because of the training, they are now well versed in respectfully confronting conflicting parties; such as parents with addiction, DCYF workers with different opinions, or loving foster parents with strong thoughts. Patience and complete lack of bias are two key concepts that CASAs leave with.

A graduate from the Manchester training said she is excited to get started.

“When the children of New Hampshire are at their most vulnerable, they need adults to step up and step in to represent their best interests,” Shannon Monroe-Davis said. “CASA of New Hampshire training and support gives me the ability to be the voice that speaks for these children. I’m ready to get started!”

There is a constant need for new volunteers, so if you’re considering becoming an advocate, you can view the 2019 training schedule here.

At the end of training, each new volunteer advocate was asked to write a message to a CASA kid from the sample case they simulated. Read their words of encouragement below!

Congratulations and welcome to the following advocates, and thank you for your dedication to New Hampshire’s children! Pictured are: Kelsey AuCoin, Cindy McNickle, Charmaine Bennett, Elizabeth Melendy, Deven Freihofer, Jane Sobolov, David Hill, Caroline Brenner, Pamela Hay, Shannon Monroe-Davis, Jami Wyman, and Cydney Dodge.