Bourbon County's Miranda Wyles will be the 2023 Bourbon and the Bayou honoree

Miranda Wyles poses for a photo with her children, Delta and JW, and Matilda, CASA of Lexington’s certified courthouse facility dog.

Bourbon County resident Miranda Wyles will be the honoree at the 2023 Bourbon and the Bayou, central Kentucky’s largest Mardi Gras-themed gala.

Wyles is being honored for her leadership in bringing Court-Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) services to Bourbon County. CASA volunteers spend time with abused and neglected children and advocate for the children’s needs in family court.

“Without Miranda, CASA may very well not have come to Bourbon County when it did,” said Melynda Jamison, Executive Director of CASA of Lexington, the program serving Bourbon County. “Miranda’s efforts also kickstarted our organization’s efforts to expand services into additional counties. Countless children will benefit from her work for years and decades to come.”

Every year, CASA of Lexington’s largest fundraiser, Bourbon and the Bayou, honors someone who has served as a champion for children in need. Previous honorees include the Dan Cummins family and Woodford County thoroughbred farm owner Fred Seitz.

The 450-person gala sells out every year and regularly generates funding for more than 200 children to receive a CASA volunteer.

More than six years ago, after learning about CASA from Jamison at a Bourbon County Rotary meeting, Wyles said she knew she had to do something.

“I got to thinking about the children that weren’t being served in Bourbon County,” Wyles said. “I couldn’t live here and not try to do something more.”

Since CASA first expanded into Bourbon County in 2017, a total of 161 Bourbon County children have received a CASA volunteer. CASA of Lexington has since expanded into Woodford, Scott, Jessamine, Garrard and Lincoln counties.

“Our Bourbon County expansion served as the catalyst and model for our future expansions,” Jamison said. “Last year alone, nearly 230 children in our expansion counties had a CASA volunteer advocating for their best interests. That is huge.”

While this year’s Bourbon and the Bayou is again sold out, a video honoring Wyles will be available to watch after the event is over at www.casaoflexington.org. And anyone interested in supporting CASA through the event can bid on silent auction items online at BandB2023.givesmart.com.

“CASA is an amazing organization, no matter what capacity you are in,” Wyles said. “It is the best use of your time that you can give to make a child’s life better, to be the change in the future.”