Since 2021 the Family Support Fund provided to CASA of McHenry County has generously given away over $29,000 in 192 scholarships for youth in care. This all started with one local couple, John Ferrero and Dr. Karen Burgess Ferrero, through their ingenuity, generosity and with the support of their family, loved ones and community.
How this fund came to be starts with a love story, as many things often do! Karen grew up in Kansas, where she went to school to be a veterinarian. John grew up right here in Crystal Lake and was interested in business. By happenstance both wound up in Florida at the same time, where they met, fell in love and moved to Chicago. In between getting married and growing their family with four daughters, they moved back to McHenry County and laid down roots, starting their own veterinary practice together.
During this time of raising their family, they always felt a call to be involved in the fostering community. This first started with John getting trained and becoming a CASA himself. He could see from the beginning how CASA is a powerful and important part of the child welfare process, but together he and Karen wanted to go even further in their impact. They waited until their youngest daughter was old enough to also voice her opinion on the family decision and then got licensed! They found the fostering process to be even more eye-opening, Karen describes it like discovering a color of the rainbow they didn’t even know existed.
After they immersed themselves within the fostering community, the family realized that there was one glaring barrier to normalcy for so many youth in care. Many foster homes lack funds for sports, activities, even birthday parties, creating disparity and inequality between foster youth and their peers. This difference is most keenly felt by children already going through a difficult and uncertain time in their lives.
Karen and John felt called to do something, be part of a solution to help to change this for the better. They developed the Family Support Fund, through their foundation Healthy Paws Animal Hospital Charitable Fund, and chose CASA of McHenry County to be a trusted steward to provide these opportunities to kids in care. The goal was to help increase safety and stability for all foster youth by helping provide education opportunities, sport activity opportunities, extracurriculars, and more. They have also worked with the Crystal Lake Soccer Federation to create scholarships for youth who specifically want to be involved in soccer!
As parents themselves, John and Karen understood the financial strain of extracurricular activities, that it is not just the entry fee, but snacks, shoes, equipment, outfits, and more. They also noted that in many school communities, if a child cannot participate in activities with their peers, it is very easy for them to start to be increasingly left out. Their hope for these scholarships is to give opportunities for normalcy, belonging, and growth for our foster youth.
John and Karen noted they knew they wanted to work with a non-profit that aligned with their principles of inclusivity and equality of opportunity. CASA of McHenry County has been fortunate to be chosen as the steward of this fund and has seen some amazing scholarships that have brought joy to many of the families we serve. We have seen basketball, baseball, soccer and gymnastics requests. Local gym requests for classes and swim lessons, that the parents could also attend as visitation times. We have seen some of our youth attend summer camps that excited them and even helped a family go to a special exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. John and Karen noted their wish is for a youth to participate in an activity that sparks something in them and for it to create goals and hope. At CASA of McHenry County, we have already seen this hope come to light in the children and families the Family Support Fund has reached and we are incredibly grateful to be a part of their vision coming to life.
What began as one couple’s desire to do more has become a lasting source of opportunity and hope for youth in foster care across McHenry County. John Ferrero and Dr. Karen Burgess Ferrero’s generosity, rooted in love, family and a deep belief in inclusion, has opened doors for nearly 200 young people to experience the joy of belonging, discovery and possibility. Through the Family Support Fund, they have shown us what can happen when a community chooses to invest not just in needs, but in potential. Their legacy is already being written in the confidence, goals and dreams of the children whose lives they’ve touched, and it will continue to grow for years to come.