Quantrell Subaru helps dozens of children in need through Bourbon & the Bayou

CASA of Lexington’s Bourbon and the Bayou Mardi Gras gala is the nonprofit organization’s largest annual fundraiser. It provides funding to advocate for hundreds of abused and neglected children in central Kentucky every year.

This year’s gala was held on Feb. 23, at the Embassy Suites Coldstream in Lexington, Ky. The event was sold out, with 450 attendees enjoying bourbon tastings, live and silent auctions, a Cajun dinner buffet, hot beignets, live music, games and dancing.

The big moment of the night is always the Sponsor a Child bonanza, when attendees raise their bidder numbers to donate $1,000 and provide an advocate for a child for one year. This year’s event set a record with 125 children sponsored.

As a Silver Sponsor of Bourbon and the Bayou this year, Quantrell Subaru has provided six children with an advocate. We could not host this event without the support of our sponsors, so Quantrell Subaru is also responsible for part of every dollar raised. This event can raise more than $300,000 in all.

Quantrell Subaru is one of our longest-giving sponsors for this event, having supported it continuously since 2019. They have given a total of $26,000 to help abused and neglected children during that time.

CASA of Lexington is one of more than 900 Court-Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) programs in the U.S. and the largest CASA program in Kentucky. We had 297 volunteer advocates in 2023, who advocated for 681 children. These are children from many different backgrounds who have been neglected or abused by their caregivers. Some have been educationally neglected; some haven’t been provided with food, safe shelter or clothing; some have suffered extreme sexual or physical abuse.

Kentucky’s rate of child abuse and neglect is well above the national average and may also be under-reported. In CASA of Lexington’s service region in 2023, there were more than 1,700 children who were identified as having suffered abuse, neglect or dependency. The child welfare and family court systems in Kentucky do not have the resources or workforce to appropriately care for all of these children.

CASA volunteers are appointed by judges to provide an extra set of eyes on children and offer recommendations that are in each child’s best interests. CASA of Lexington volunteers visit their assigned children monthly, showing them someone is looking out for them and giving them hope for the future. On various cases, our volunteers have uncovered previously unknown abuse, identified overlooked medical conditions, found relatives willing to take children in and pushed back on inappropriate plans from the state that would be harmful for the children.

We have given thousands of children brighter futures, thanks to the support of dedicated sponsors like Quantrell Subaru, which understands the importance of giving our children safe, permanent, and loving homes.

During this year’s Bourbon and the Bayou, Executive Director Melynda Jamison shared the story of one child who benefited greatly from his CASA volunteer. Stuart (a pseudonym to protect the child’s privacy) was removed from a dangerous home, but then separated from his siblings and placed in an expensive treatment facility for children with substance use disorder. Stuart had never used and alcohol or drugs, and why he was placed there remains a question to this day. Stuart’s CASA volunteer advocated for his medical needs while he was in the treatment facility, then became the only person on the case regularly visiting Stuart after he was moved to a foster home.

Stuart’s CASA volunteer also pushed for him to have visits with his siblings, even though the state was adamantly opposed. Stuart’s CASA volunteer was instrumental in determining that Stuart had been incorrectly labeled with behavioral problems he did not have; and that Stuart’s new foster home was willing to adopt not only him, but his siblings, as well.

Today, Stuart and his siblings are living together and adoption will soon be finalized. Without his CASA volunteer, Stuart would likely have lived apart from his siblings the rest of his life — and his siblings may never have found a permanent home.

Thanks to Quantrell Subaru, there are dozens of children with stories like Stuart’s today — stories that end far better than they would have without CASA.

We are blessed to have an organization like Quantrell Subaru in our community, which is willing to invest in making things better for children now, and better for all of us in the future. And we are already looking forward to next year’s Bourbon and the Bayou!