Pediatric nurse keeps helping kids after retirement by serving as a CASA volunteer

CASA Volunteer Cindy Budek

Cindy Budek spent 40 years working with kids as a pediatric nurse practitioner at a hospital in Chicago. She dedicated her career to helping kids, including those with complex problems.

Now that she has retired and moved to Lexington, Ky., she is still helping kids in a different way: as a CASA volunteer.

The hours are much easier – it takes just five to 10 hours a month to serve as a CASA volunteer. But she can still change the course of a child’s life by being a consistent presence in their life and advocating for their needs.

“I wanted to try and find something to keep me busy and to use the skills I have. And I just really wanted to still be in contact with kids and their families,” Budek said. “I have so enjoyed being a CASA volunteer. I’m just starting my second case now.”

On Budek’s first case, she got to witness a child being reunified with her mom.

“It was just a beautiful experience seeing her mom do a 180 and get her life together,” she said. “I think in court, they were ready to give her a standing ovation for working so hard to bring her daughter back home.”

Budek visited the girl monthly and provided reports to the judge while that case was going on. Those reports ensured the judge knew what was going on in the girl’s life and verified that the mom really was turning things around.

“Knowing that hopefully, I am changing the course of a child’s life and giving them the opportunity to be able to grow and mature and be able to contribute to their family and their community is amazing,” Budek said. “Unless we intervene, things are going to be really difficult for these kids.”

Social workers and attorneys who work family court cases all have large numbers of cases at the same time and very limited time to dedicate to any one child. A CASA volunteer can focus on an individual child and often provide a level of detail about their life that no one else can.

Budek’s Volunteer Manager, Kyrsten Adkins, said she has now matched Budek with a new case that involves sifting through medical records to understand the children’s needs. Budek’s background as a pediatric nurse has made her the ideal volunteer for the case.

“She is a newer volunteer who has hit the ground running and is knocking it out of the park,” Adkins said.

Budek said serving as a CASA volunteer is very rewarding and she loves the support of Adkins and others who make it easier to do the work.

“You don’t know what your childhood experience is going to be,” she said. “I feel so blessed that I was in a family where I didn’t have to worry about food or getting to school, and I felt loved and supported. I just want to try to have as many other kids experience that as possible and know there’s someone out there who cares and wants them to succeed and have a great childhood.”