Undaunted by the August afternoon heat, Judge Denise deBellefeuille spoke from her heart as she presided over a moving swearing-in ceremony for 15 new CASA (Court-Appointed Special Advocates) volunteers in the Santa Barbara Courthouse's Mural Room.

The Advocates ranged in age from earnest 20-somethings to energetic seniors - all of them having completed the rigorous five-week CASA training and committed to serving for at least one year as a children's advocate to help "assure a safe, permanent, nurturing home for every abused and/or neglected child."

A Women's Fund grant awarded this Spring is already having a significant impact on this advocacy process. By September, 10 bilingual children, who CASA would not otherwise have been able to serve, will gain bilingual Advocates to recommend to the judicial system whether the children should be reunited with their parents, remain in foster care or in the care of a responsible family member, or be placed in a permanent adoptive home. The recently hired Bilingual Advocate Supervisor funded by the Women's Fund is ensuring that CASAs will be a safety net for these vulnerable children.

To learn more about the impact our grants are having in our community, don't miss the 8th Annual Women's Fund Site Visit from 8:30 am to 1:45 pm on Tuesday, October 2.

We encourage Women's Fund members to bring guests to this popular event which features a bus tour of some of our most recent grantees followed by a luncheon program.

This year we'll meet at the downtown branch of the Santa Barbara Public Library where we will tour and board buses for our morning agency visits. Lunch will be served at the Library following the tours. And then we'll cross the street to the Mural Room of the Courthouse where a juvenile court justice will talk to us about CASA.

Your electronic invitation will arrive in your September Women's Fund newsletter after Labor Day. In the meantime, mark Oct. 2 on your calendar for this always "sold-out" event.

Thanks to a generous matching grant from Women's Fund member Betty Elings Wells, every dollar donated to the Women's Fund in 2012 (above $350,000) will be matched 2-for-1, up to $250,000.

• As a special incentive, any woman who joins in 2012 as a first-time Individual Member ($2,500) will have her contribution matched 3-for-1 instead of 2-for-1.

• The 3-for-1 match will also apply to any previous or current Group Member who becomes an Individual Member ($2,500) in 2012.

As you know, funds raised in 2012 become the grants pool Women's Fund members vote to award to local nonprofit agencies in the Spring of 2013.

Although the deadline to join the 2012 Women's Fund is Dec. 31, please join now to help us reach our threshold to trigger Betty's match - making more dollars available to donate into the community.