Story and image provided by CASA for Kids.

CASA For Kids of Payne and Logan Counties is proud to recognize Debbie Fimple as our Volunteer of the Month for April 2017. She has been a volunteer for four years on one of Payne County’s most difficult cases. Debbie’s child has lived in 80 different placements in her nine years in DHS custody. Debbie remained the CASA through four different DHS case workers and multiple placements in several different states. Because of these incredibly difficult challenges, Debbie says “she has seen the very best and very worst of the human race.”  She sees the “impossible job of DHS workers”, the importance of protecting children’s rights, and has “learned a great deal about a world I had certainly never been exposed to.”

Debbie heard about CASA for the first time 20 years ago at a local Rotary meeting. She never forgot what she heard that day, and was able to complete training and become a CASA in June of 2013, upon moving to Stillwater. The Fimples moved from Vinita, where Debbie ran a vet clinic. She still returns to Tulsa to work part time. Her husband, Stan, works as the OSU extension agent in Pawnee county. They have two children, Brandon and Lindsey. Brandon graduated from OSU’s Hotel and Restaurant Administration program and works in Creede, CO.  Lindsey, and her husband Jacob Huffman live in Vinita, where Lindsey works as a RN for the Cherokee Nation. They have three sons, Gunner, Garrison, and Gauge, which make Debbie’s life pretty wonderful!

Can you be a voice for a child? We have a new volunteer training starting in April. Call 405-624-2242 or visit casaforkids.com.