Four CASA staff, volunteers and mental health community members were honoured during CASA Mental Health’s Annual General Meeting 2024 on Sept. 25.
The Dr. Myer Horowitz Book Award, named after one of CASA’s honourary patrons, is presented to those who have made outstanding contributions in the field of child, adolescent and family mental health, either in a professional or non-professional capacity.
This year’s first recipient is Danette Anderson, who has been providing education services for CASA’s various day programs and CASA House for almost 10 years.
The second recipient is Janet Ryan-Newell. She is an outstanding champion of children and youth mental health in Alberta, having dedicated her entire career to the delivery of evidence-based, psychological services, effective behavioural health programming, applied clinical training and child and family focused service programs.
In 2015, the Harris Award for Outstanding Volunteer Contributions was established in recognition of the extraordinary volunteer contributions made by Gwen and Ross Harris, who supported CASA through its first 25 years.
Lavanya Jain is this year’s recipient of the award. She has been volunteering since June 2020, and has demonstrated an outstanding commitment to the organization through her extensive volunteer work totaling more than 175 hours.
The final award of the evening was the Peggie and Ernie Stevens Philanthropy Award, named in honour of the remarkable impact the Stevens, founding members of the former CASA Foundation, have made.
Recipient John McCaffray has been involved in every event the CASA Foundation organized, attending a and supporting the CASA Carnival, the Minds Over Mountains Cycle Tour and CASA Golf Classic. He also hosts an annual “Rise Up” golf tournament in support of youth mental health where CASA is a benefactor of the funds raised.
Throughout the years, John has donated more than $125,000, but the amount of time that he has volunteered and the efforts he has contributed have been priceless.
