Hancock County judges join CASA board members, staff and volunteers Aug. 15 for a sendoff party for retired judge Terry Snow, who served as the founding president of Friends of Hancock County CASA when the organization formed three years ago. Snow is stepping down from board duty, after being credited with bringing CASA to Hancock County in 2008.
GREENFIELD — Friends of CASA threw a going away party Aug. 15 for retired Judge Terry Snow, celebrating the man who was responsible for bringing the Court Appointed Special Advocates program to Hancock County.
Snow retired from the bench in December 2019, but continued to work with the Hancock County CASA program and Friends of CASA, an offshoot nonprofit that raises funds to grant wishes for children in the local court system.
“We’ve got so many talented people in Hancock County who want to help the kids who are having a tough time. It’s very rewarding work,” said Snow, who was touched by last week’s sendoff from the Friends of CASA board.
“Judge Snow is phenomenal. He has such a passion for the program,” said Marciann McClarnon Miller, director of the Hancock County CASA program.
It was Snow who urged her and other local volunteers in the fall of 2019 to break out on their own to form Hancock County CASA.
When the state organization pushed back somewhat, Snow was persistent, even insisting to pay part of the operating budget out of his own pocket the first year.
“I was just grateful that he was so supportive and believed in what Hancock County could do from the very beginning, and just knew how successful we were going to be,” McClarnon Miller said.
Today, the Hancock County CASA program has 40 volunteers and serves 109 children, with no kids on the waiting list.
“It’s amazing what a group of people can do when they get together and put their minds to it,” said Snow, who said his time spent with the organization has been “exhilarating.”
Before retiring from the bench in 2019, Snow spent 17 years overseeing cases in Hancock County Superior Court 1 court.
He was attending a judicial conference in 2007 when he heard a speaker talk about the Court Appointed Special Advocates program, better known as CASA. He approached her right away and made plans to bring the program to Hancock County.
CASAs are tasked with getting to know a child or multiple children within a family, providing them with a listening ear and a voice in court.
“They make a huge impact,” said Snow. “Sitting on the bench you only get the information people give you. The parents have their lawyers and the (state) has their lawyers, but no one is representing the kids,” he said.
“The CASA serves as the voice for that child, and they write an independent report to the court telling them what is going on in that child’s life, and what that CASA believes is in the best interest of the child. That’s the only thing that CASA cares about,” Snow said.
“As a judge I took the CASA report very seriously because I knew that person didn’t have any agenda other than the child, and a lot of times I heard things from that person that no one else told me. It made a big difference in the decisions I made as a judge,” he said.
When he first learned of the program Snow jumped at the chance to create a CASA nonprofit in Hancock County, but state CASA officials directed him to join forces with the existing East Central Indiana CASA program run out of Madison County.
The Hancock County program quickly grew as it served an increasing number of kids, to the point where program director McClarnon Miller pushed to create an independent organization.
Hancock County CASA became a self-established entity in January 2020, and Friends of CASA was developed just a few months later.
The latter nonprofit raises funds to make CASA children’s dreams come true, like recently remodeling a little girl’s bedroom with a Barbie theme.
“There’s a lot of things out there the parents or families need, or something to make the kids feel good about themselves and where they are at that point in their lives,” Snow said.
As Hancock County’s first CASA director, McClarnon Miller recalls reaching out to Snow and “twisting his arm” to serve as the newly independent organization’s board president, and later as the founding president for Friends of CASA.
“I’ve seen him in court, and he is such an advocate for children. I’ve heard him more than once look a parent straight in the eye and say, ‘Get it together. Your child wants to come home. Your child needs you,’” she said. “He has never been anything but the most tenacious and ferocious advocate for children.”
Snow continues to advocate for children even in retirement, which hasn’t seemed to slow him down much.
He frequently delivers Meals on Wheels, volunteers through his church and stays active with the Rotary Club of Greenfield.
“I enjoy having ways to give back to the community,” said Snow, who lives in Greenfield.
This month he’s preparing to embark on a 10-day trip to Normandy with his daughter, where they plan to explore the beach and surrounding areas where some of the major World War II battles took place.
“He lets no grass grow beneath his feet,” McClarnon Miller said.
