During the COVID-19 pandemic, several Dallas CASA volunteers have continued their work on the frontlines while staying committed to their Dallas CASA cases. Dallas CASA thanks and honors each of these hard workers both in their professional roles as well as their volunteer ones.

Tiesha Burrows

Tiesha Burrows works full-time as a case manager for an insurance company, where she engages with Medicare members. On the weekends, she works as a post-surgical nurse. She does lots of patient education and teaching about various disease processes. She’s also been a Dallas CASA volunteer since 2018.

When the pandemic hit, Tiesha volunteered to serve as a nurse in McAllen in an overflow hospital, where she worked on a general medical-surgical floor with both COVID and non-COVID patients during the worst days of the pandemic. In recent months, she’s turned her focus to setting up vaccine appointments and arranging transportation to those appointments for the most vulnerable populations.

She says looking back, she remembers how tired she was at the end of a shift but also how resilient people are. “Even when we were having terrible shifts, we never lost hope for our patients,” she said. “I don’t regret going to help where I could. I would do so again if needed.”

Tracy Chumbley

Tracy Chumbley has been a Garland firefighter and paramedic for 25 years and a Dallas CASA volunteer for two years. He came to Dallas CASA as a way to gain closure on some of the things he sees at work.

“As firefighters and paramedics, we see the front side of CPS cases, but we never see the outcomes and that’s hard,” he said. “Being a CASA volunteer has allowed me to see the full circle.”

At the beginning of the pandemic, Tracy says his team was short on supplies and information, but they persevered knowing people would still need emergency services. They found some leftover supplies from the Ebola outbreak and pressed on serving the community, even as information about the pandemic changed daily.

Through it all, he’s diligently worked his CASA cases, including two cases involving five siblings each.

Ariel and Cree Cobb

Ariel and Cree Cobb are sisters, volunteer advocates and nurses. They both work as critical care nurses at Parkland Hospital and in the early days of the pandemic were assigned to the hospital’s dedicated COVID unit. Cree shared that as nurses, the sisters had taken an oath to serve their patients and the community. “Although in the beginning COVID was new and we didn’t know much about it, we had to make sure our patients were taken care of.”

The pair were often the only visitors for the patients they were serving and the only ones by their sides in their final moments on earth. “We strongly believe that in everything we both do, God is our guidance and protection, and we are honored to be his helping hands.”

Through it all, they’ve continued their dedication to Dallas CASA, where they serve as co-advocates to two teenage siblings in foster care.

Maria Mendoza

Maria Mendoza has been a Dallas CASA volunteer for 18 years, and her supervisor tells us she’s never said no to a case – including the one she’s currently assigned to that includes eight siblings. She brings her calm demeanor to each case she works. And as a Spanish-speaker, she often takes cases where she can connect with the children through shared language.

She brings the same calm to her professional life. She is a clinical supervisor for a local medical practice that stayed open from the very beginning of the pandemic. She shared that even during the uncertainty all around her, she knew she had to remain calm and take it day by day. “We have patients to take care of and I knew that by working in the medical field this is what I signed up for,” she said.

She volunteered to be one of the first symptom screeners in her office and credits her co-workers and their strength and support for getting them all through those frightening first few months. But she calls being a part of CASA ones of her greatest achievements.

Hannah Pearson

Now working her third case in two years with Dallas CASA, Hannah volunteered early in the pandemic to work the dedicated COVID unit at Parkland. As a single woman living alone, she felt like she should volunteer before those with families at home, but she maintained her commitment to the children she serves as well.

“I see the kids have to deal with a ton of strangers, and it’s nice to be a familiar face for them because they don’t just move homes, they move schools and doctors and therapists. That’s very overwhelming for children,” she said.

She never missed a beat on her CASA case, even packing and delivering Easter baskets to the children she was assigned to. She dropped baskets off on their doorstep, wiped them down with Lysol wipes, then FaceTimed from the car while the kids came out and discovered their baskets off the porch.

Dallas CASA would like to thank Tiesha, Ariel and Cree, Tracy, Maria and Hannah for their incredible service to the community!