Hi Friends, we hope you are having a fun-filled summer so far!

CASATNH has been busy with community outreach so we apologize for not having any new blogs!

and join our newsletter here: https://casatnh.org/contact-us/

Here is what we’ve been up to:

March

Lunch & Learns

We Hosted TWO lunch & Learns on March 27th & 28th. One in Anderson county at the Oak Ridge Chamber building and

one in Blount county at the Blount Chamber Building.

Both Lunch and learns had at least ten attendees! What a great turnout!

Special Thank you to McAlister’s in Maryville and Fire & Salt in Oak Ridge for providing lunch for our attendees!

We gained two new Board Members!

Meet LaDonna!
LaDonna McFall is a Retired educator. She has served as a classroom teacher, principal, central office instructional leader, and superintendent.
Currently, LaDonna is working for Edmentum as a Program Manager serving East Tennessee. She is married to her husband Tim and they have have 5 children and 2 rescue dogs!
Help us Welcome Ladonna! We look forward to your contribution to our board!

Meet Ram!
Ram Uppuluri is an attorney licensed in Tennessee and the District of Columbia. He recently moved back to Oak Ridge after living in Washington, DC for the past 28 years, where he served in the Clinton Administration at the US Department of Energy, followed by a 20 year career in local DC government and nonprofit sector. He served as Legislative Counsel to the DC Council’s Committee on Human Services from 2007-2010, as VP for Partnerships at the DC Children and Youth Investment Trust, as Executive Director of the DC Alliance of Youth Advocates, and most recently, as Committee Director of the Council’s Housing Committee. From 2014-2018, he served on the District’s Juvenile Justice Advisory Group. Ram is a member of the Oak Ridge Breakfast Rotary Club, serves on the board of the Oak Ridge Fund for Achieving Community Excellence (ORFACE), as a community representative on the Oak Ridge Sister City Support Organization, and member of the Scarboro 85 Monument Committee.
Help us Welcome Ram! We look forward to his exceptional addition to our board of Directors!

April

April was National Child abuse Prevention Month

We teamed up with a local coffee shop in Anderson County, Calamity’s Coffee to disburse Coffee sleeves to raise awareness!

They helped us distribute 1200 sleeves!

Pictured below is our Executive Director Kesha showing off her coffee with our awareness sleeve.

Thank you so much to our friends over at Calamity’s Coffee!

CASATNH & FJC Ice cream social

In April we also Partnered with the Family Justice Center of Anderson County to host an Ice Cream Social in Jackson Square!

It was a huge Success! Despite the dreary Weather we were able to distribute 38 Backpacks to the community and the Pilot Club was able to Distribute 40 Helmets!

We had a visit from ORFD with the Firetruck and ORPD helped to do the fittings for all the helmets distributed!

Thank you to everyone to helped and showed up for the event!

Proclamations

We also received a Proclamation in both Anderson and Blount Counties for Child abuse Prevention month.

Pictured below is Kesha our Executive Director accepting the Proclamations from Blount County Mayor Ed Mitchel with Board Secretary Russ Nellis

Volunteer Appreciation week

To wrap up April we celebrated Volunteer Appreciation week! April 20th -27th was National Volunteer Appreciation week. We hand delivered a special thank you gift and heartfelt video to each of our volunteers during this week to show them how much they mean to us- We couldn’t do it without them!

We thank you ALL. Every one of you have made a difference!
“Volunteers do not necessarily have the time; they just have the heart.” – Elizabeth Andrew

We gained two more Board Additions!

Meet David!
David Mandl is the General Counsel at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Secretary of UT-Battelle, LLC. At ORNL, he leads a team of legal professionals with broad expertise in all practice areas relevant to ORNL’s mission, and oversees the Lab’s Privacy Program, Ethics Program, Intellectual Property Management, and Corporate Governance.

He also serves as an Associate Director on the Board of the ORNL Federal Credit Union and is a former Board Member and Secretary for United Way of Anderson County. In his spare time, David enjoys traveling, running, and spending as much time as possible around water – the beach is his happy place, but he is adapting nicely to the lakes of East Tennessee. David and his wife, Geren, have three children who never cease to amaze them!
Welcome to the board David- we look forward to your contributions!

Meet Richelle!

A little about Richelle: A Minnesota native, Richelle and her husband, Quentin, moved to the Knoxville area in 2017 and have fallen in love with all that East Tennessee has to offer. Nonprofit marketing creative by day and shameless dog mom by night, Richelle is a proud graduate of the University of North Dakota where she received her Bachelor of Arts in communication and her Master of Public Administration. Throughout her career, she has worked in nearly all facets of marketing, business development, community involvement, user experience, and employee training. Richelle is an active member of the Kiwanis Club of Oak Ridge, Young Professionals of Knoxville, and CUNA Marketing & Business Development Council; enjoys volunteering with the Knoxville office of the Alzheimer’s Association and their annual Walk to End Alzheimer’s; and is a Lifetime Girl Scout. When she’s not working or volunteering, you’ll usually find Richelle at a local brewery, hiking Knoxville’s Urban Wilderness with her spoiled rotten Setters – Taz and Bugs – or camped out with a good book and copious amounts of coffee.

Welcome Richelle! We look forward to having you on our board!

May

Uncork & Unwind 2024

In may we held our Second Annual UNCORK & UNWIND event!

The weather moved out just in time for the event. We had a GREAT time and some DELICIOUS food that was paired by Chef Alex Gass from local Restaurant Fire & Salt!

Thank you to all our our Wonderful sponsors who helped us create such a great time! Here’s a few shots of the fun evening!