CASA School Kids Working on Their Holiday Pinata

The decorated clay pot also called a cantero represents Satan who often wears an attractive mask to attract humanity. The most traditional style piñata looks a bit like Sputnik, with seven points, each with streamers. These cones represent the seven deadly sins, pecados - greed, gluttony, sloth, pride, envy, wrath and lust. Beautiful and bright, the piñata tempted. Candies and fruits inside represented the cantaros (temptations)of wealth and earthly pleasures.

The blindfolded participant represents the leading force in defying evil, ‘Fe’, faith, which must be blind. People gathered near the player and spun him around to confuse his sense of space. Sometimes the turns numbered thirty three in memory of the life of Christ.

Secondly the piñata served as a symbol of ‘Esperanza’, Hope.

With the piñata hanging above their heads, people watched towards los cielos (sky or heaven) yearning and waiting for the prize. The stick for breaking the piñata symbolized virtue, as only good can overcome evil. Once broken, the candies and fruits represented the just reward for keeping faith.

Finally the piñata symbolized ‘Caridad’, Charity. With its eventual breaking, everyone shared in the divine blessings and gifts.

The moral of the piñata: all are justified through faith.

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Our CASA Store is getting some love but we are not done yet!!!

We are still needing and taking in donations. Please help us help our CASA families!! Every little bit counts!

If you have any questions or would like to drop off donations please contact CASA at 575.625.0112 or message us on our Facebook page!

2016’s Best & Worst States for Underprivileged Children

by Richie Bernardo

In an ideal world, children live carefree and have access to their basic needs: nutritious food, a good education and quality health care, for instance. Beyond those, adequate safety as well as the love and support of caring adults. Children often have a strong chance of stability in adulthood when all such needs are met. But these are not the rights of every child; for some, they are privileges. In the U.S., in fact, a baby is born into poverty every 32 seconds, and another 1,836 cases of abuse or neglect will be confirmed by the end of the day, according to the Children’s Defense Fund.

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For child sex abuse victims, court can be another place to feel unsafe

Prosecutors have been hesitant to ask a judge to allow a comfort dog or even a stuffed animal
to be brought into the court for fear it could lead to a successful appeal of a conviction.

By Maria Cramer GLOBE STAFF  DECEMBER 08, 2016

The 10-year-old girl sat at the witness stand, fiddling with a soft pom-pom ball she had found in a sewing kit. Her head down, her voice barely above a whisper, she could bring herself to look up only once — when the prosecutor asked her if the neighbor accused of molesting her when she was 6 years old was in the courtroom.

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Former Child of Foster Care Works to Fix the System

Rutgers student Kaysie Getty recognized for her efforts to improve the lives of foster care youth

By Lisa Intrabartola

Kaysie Getty can’t imagine her life without foster care.

The child of a drug addicted mother and incarcerated father, Getty was born a ward of the state. She spent half her childhood bouncing from home to home, searching for stability and waiting for the day she could extricate herself from a system she describes as broken.

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A Sweeping Reform Of The Foster Care System Is Within Reach But Hanging By A Thread

Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) is demanding that the child welfare measure be stripped from the 21st Century Cures Act,
and he’s suggested that he has had other senators joining in his rebellion. 

WASHINGTON ― Responding to an outcry from a sprawling network of group homes in North Carolina, Sen. Richard Burr (R) led a surprise rebellion this week against a sweeping reform of the child welfare system that had already passed the House of Representatives by a unanimous voice vote.

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