Special CASA Awards and Recognition
Sue Horrocks 2007 Board Member of the Year
Sue Horrocks has been a tremendous asset to the CASA program through her dedicated fundraising activities. Sue joined the CASA board in 2004 & served on the Fundraising Committee. The next year she was nominated as Co Chair of CASA’s annual Hearts Go Out to Children Gala. As Co Chair Sue gave many hours of her time planning & implementing the event and recruited sponsors & donors. By 2006 Sue was the Chair of the event. Sue’s commitment to CASA couldn’t possibly be any stronger. Sue & husband Biff own & operate three McDonald’s in Stillwater & one in Perry. They have children & grandchildren & are very active in the Stillwater community. That didn’t stop Sue. In August Sue started recruiting items & sponsors while spending countless hours working with the committee & Program Director gearing up for the big event. A tremendous amount of pressure comes with this Chair position as this all important event is typically the second largest funding source for Payne County CASA each year. The event, having run a seven year course at that time was losing momentum, Sue was willing to take the lead & try something new. The committee agreed to try a Vegas night type fundraiser. Sue coined the term CASA Casino Royale & things just snowballed from there. Sue’s personable & caring demeanor opened doors to lasting relationships with many donors. Sue was able to gain the support of Mitchener Farrand jewelers in Oklahoma City who donated six incredible pieces of jewelry with a combined retail value of $13,000! Sue was able to acquire two fur coats from Geno’s Furs in Oklahoma City which netted Payne County CASA a profit of $3,000. We’re still not finished. Sue was able to convince Southwest Airlines to donate two roundtrip tickets anywhere Southwest flies. Sue was then able to acquire a gold, diamond heart pendant with a value of $575 from Jackson Jewelers in Stillwater! Sue also purchased four unfinished children’s rocking chairs herself. These weren’t going to be just any rockers. Sue contacted the OSU Art Department & got four art professors to agree to each take a rocker & decorate it with their original art. Each chair was signed by the professor & given a special title to reflect its uniqueness. All of this on top of an OSU children’s table & chair set, a miniature smoker, a DVD player, & more! It’s not out of the ordinary for a board member to acquire a spectacular item that raises money for our CASA events but it is incredible to look at the many things Sue was able to access in order to support CASA! This still doesn’t reflect the countless hours of her time that Sue gave to the program. The Program Director thanked Sue’s husband Biff repeatedly for sharing his wife as Biff always wondered if Sue was ever coming back to work to help him run their business! Aside from working to acquire all these donations Sue also held weekly meetings at her office & provided breakfast! Sue created forms for the event, sent out encouraging emails, updated the board on event progress each month, & drove to Oklahoma City a number of times in order to work with donors. On top of it all McDonald’s was also a corporate sponsor at the event. When all was said & done CASA Casino Royale got incredible reviews with the largest turn out of any Payne County CASA fundraiser with 275 guests in attendance- the building couldn’t hold anymore than that! The event provided a net profit of $36,500. Of that amount Sue had something to do with over $10,000 of that total in some form or fashion not including her own time, mileage, & breakfasts! She’s at it again too, as Past Chair for this year’s event she has already submitted some fantastic ideas to the committee which will be implemented at the 2008 event. It’s no surprise that Sue was awarded the Payne County CASA Board Member of the Year award for 2006-2007. Sue’s commitment to the CASA program makes her very deserving of this award & one thing we should never forget- she does it all as a volunteer. Sue is the epitome of nice, she is extremely caring, & her heart is in this program. She deserves to be put on a pedestal for the shining example she is for other board members- the best way to do that is to give her this award! If other board members across the state do 1/10th of what Sue has done for Payne County CASA those programs are very fortunate. However, to do what Sue’s done for CASA with such devotion in absolutely unmatched. If you ask Sue she’ll tell you- it’s all for the kids. AND if there was an award for Board Member of the Year’s Biggest Supporter we would definitely nominate Sue’s husband Biff since he so graciously sacrificed his wife to CASA on a daily basis for over six months!!!
