by Richard Prior
Staff Writer
The three women who were honored recently with Lifetime Achievement Awards have no intention of resting on their laurels.
“I think the biggest thing is the three of us couldn’t imagine not doing this,” said Cindy Hockett. “That’s why we said we’ve got to continue on and do what we know best and love to do. And that is advocating for children.
“We’re an unbelievable team. We just pick up the pieces wherever. We’re all striving to do the best we can for these children.”
Until Nov. 25, Hockett, Mary Beth Ridderman and Rosemary Arnold worked out of the Guardian ad Litem office in the Clay County Courthouse. Then, two days before Thanksgiving, all three were let go.
“The reason we were given was that we no longer fit the new director’s plans for the program,” said Ridderman, who had been county coordinator for the program. “We still don’t know what those plans are.”
Hockett had been the case coordinator. Arnold’s title was administrative assistant, “but she was more than that, said Ridderman. “We considered her our office manager. She was a rock.”
Arnold had been with the program for 12 years, volunteering time in the office in addition to doing guardian work. She worked with Ridderman and Hockett for the past seven years.
The template for the Guardian ad Litem program is CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates), formed in 1977 by a Seattle judge frustrated at seeing the same faces so often. He wanted insightful, unbiased reactions to what was happening in troubled families.
He selected and trained the first volunteers, laymen with no legal training and no ax to grind. The program now operates nationwide.
Guardians ad litem get involved in three areas of law.
Though criminal law is the model for the program, it is the least used for fear of jeopardizing prosecutions.
Family law includes divorce and disputes involving visitation rights.
Dependency law usually involves allegations that a child’s well-being is in danger, most often through abuse or neglect.
“We carried a very high case load,” said Hockett. “We’re probably one of very few programs that accepted every dependency case appointed to us.”
There are so many referrals, they have to be prioritized. The worst cases and the youngest children get a volunteer.
Problems can intensify when strife traps parents in their own little worlds.
“Parents get so involved in these cases that they’re so tense and so worried about how they going to come out,” said Ridderman. “They don’t always focus on their child. They need to, but they kind of lose sight.”
When the trio left the courthouse for the last time, they left behind 27 family law cases and 126 dependency cases. Everybody worked hard.
“There were a lot of dedicated volunteers in the Clay County office,” said Ridderman. “Forty-two of them. And some had as many as 11 cases at one time.
“They worked it as a full-time job for free. Used their own gas money and drove some pretty bad roads in the county. They get called out day and night — Christmases, birthdays, weekends.
“Inevitably, there’s a crisis on Friday afternoon. They get called, they go out. They’re amazing people.”
Arnold, Hockett and Ridderman themselves did a lot more than interview children, parents and neighbors, compiling reports for the court.
They lined up pro bono attorneys to help out. They found an optometrist more than willing to examine children’s eyes at no cost. They got beds donated for children who were sleeping on floors. Hockett got six pairs of shoes donated for Christmas.
Each year they had used a donated U-Haul truck to deliver Christmas presents to needy children and their siblings. Having lost their “credentials” when they lost their jobs, Hockett borrowed her neighbor’s horse trailer to pick up donations and make deliveries.
“The kids at the churches and different places were really excited to be putting presents in a horse trailer,” she said. “It was different.”
The judges of the 4th Judicial Circuit recognized their dedication at a special ceremony April 21. General Master Steven Combs presented them with plaques, congratulating them for Lifetime Achievement in Child Advocacy.
“The part I liked best was ‘above and beyond the call of duty,’ ” said Ridderman. “Isn’t that amazing? We didn’t think anybody was watching.”
The three now have formed Clay Child Advocates & Custody Evaluators Inc. and work out of their homes. They essentially do the same work they did for the county, taking family law cases through the court.
“Everybody’s been so kind and generous,” said Ridderman. “I think that’s why the three of us just couldn’t let go. We had to continue.
“But we’re not taking anything away from the guardian ad Litem program. They now only do dependency cases.”
As a nonprofit corporation, the business can apply for grants, especially Reinhold grants, established for Clay County people who provide services to the community.
“We use that for the kids and for the volunteers,” said Ridderman. “As a nonprofit, we can subsidize the cost of these evaluations, so the parents don’t have to pay quite so much.”
The three are also certain that, with their history of giving, county residents will continue helping out. They understand what’s at stake.
“No child asks to be put in that position,” said Hockett. “Every child deserves a chance to a normal life.
“That’s what we want to do. Bring some kind of normalcy to lives that are full of dysfunction.”