East Texas CASA welcomes sixth sister volunteer

TYLER, Texas (KLTV) - It was somewhat of a family reunion at the Gregg County Courthouse Wednesday, when the sixth sister in a family of court appointed social advocate (CASA) volunteers was sworn in.

“An entire family of sisters that now volunteers with our program and advocating for children,” said Shelly Smith, the executive director of East Texas CASA. “They’ve been with the program for several years and finally the last sister was brought in, trained and now she’s being sworn in to work with our program.”

The Campbell sisters have a passion for helping children.

“It doesn’t take a lot of your time,” said Tesa Wilson, one of the sisters. “There’s a big impact in the end, you’re helping kids that don’t have a voice.”

That passion has led all six of them to become CASA volunteers.

“They’re an amazing group of women and were so excited to have that last sister be sworn in,” said Smith.

Dede, the final sister to be sworn in, did so today.

“She’s always been slow,” said Wilson, causing the rest of her sisters to laugh. “But, she caught on and we’re glad. It’s just a good thing we can do as a group.”

The sisters said it’s very beneficial to have others who understand what they’re going through.

“I think it helps to have sisters doing this together because then when you get frustrated with a case you’re working on, you’ve got someone to bounce ideas off of,” said Lisa Maatouk, one of the sisters.

Smith said East Texas CASA is lucky to have the siblings.

“They also advocate for us in the community, they talk about CASA, they bring in more volunteers, as they have for each of the siblings,” said Smith. “But, they also bring in more community volunteers. They’ve just been such a huge asset to us since 2014 in our program.”

The Campbell sisters said they’re passionate about giving a voice to the children they help because they always had a voice when they were growing up.

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