A CASA Volunteer is appointed by the Family Court Judge to provide factual, independent and objective information regarding the status of children involved in child protective proceedings. The CASA Volunteer complements the duties of other professionals involved in neglect and abuse cases. Other professionals include, but are not limited to, the Court, protective service workers, foster care workers, prosecuting attorneys, the Guardian Ad Litem, attorneys for the respondent parents, and therapists and counselors.

In 1977, a Seattle juvenile court judge concerned about making drastic decisions with insufficient information conceived the idea of citizen volunteers speaking up for the best interests of abused and neglected children in the courtroom. From that first program has grown a network of nearly 1,000 CASA and guardian ad litem programs that are recruiting, training and supporting volunteers.

was founded in 1995, by Judge Susan Dobrich. The first volunteers were trained in 1997. Today there are 180+ children in foster care in Cass County where 20+ volunteers advocate for approximately 40 of these children. Additional volunteers can make a huge difference in the lives of these children.

If you are interested in learning more about being a volunteer advocate or a board member, contact Program Director, Erica Boulanger at 269. 445.4431 ext 1 or email casscocasa2@yahoo.com.

CASA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit agency.

The Cassopolis-Vandalia Chamber of Commerce is dedicated to promoting positive economic growth, fostering community partnerships, and serving as an advocate for the business community. The Chamber is a partnership of local businesses and citizens working together to build a healthy economy and improve the quality of life in our community. 

www.cassvanchamber.com

Our store is designed to provide a fun & cozy atmosphere for our customers.

 Chill Hill LLC

8986 1st Street Baroda, MI 49101

2693267173

At Cline Art Gallery we believe you can find peace and healing through art. Brenda has captured and wowed young and old through her paintings and passion for the arts. You can find her almost anywhere but her treasured place is on stage at Savage Bean on Saturday morning. 

GLOBALLY INSPIRED, LOCALLY PRODUCED WINES

Dablon Vineyards & Winery is a family-owned, 45-acre estate vineyard nestled in the heart of Southwest Michigan. Founded in 2009 with 4 acres of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, we now grow close to 20 varietals crafted into more than 30 wines (including some unusual to the area, such as Malbec and Petit Verdot). Along with other fine wineries in the state, our goal is to elevate Michigan wine to the national stage.

Exceptional wine comes from exceptional grapes. We hand-plant each vine and hand-nurture the grapes on our estate vineyard. Our wine makers combine traditional wine making methods with the latest technological wine making equipment, crafting

& bottling wines that are rich, vibrant, complex, elegant, and full of flavor.

Our industrially elegant, award-winning tasting room is open

363 days a year. Sip wine with friends & family on our gorgeous terrace overlooking the vineyard or next to our inviting fireplace. We offer winery tours, barrel tastings, wine dinners, and movie nights, as well as snowshoeing during the colder months. Dablon is located in Baroda, MI just 5 miles east of I-94. Come visit!

*2023 Awards:

• USA Today #8 Tasting Room in the United States

(only tasting room outside the west & east coasts in the top 10!) • Midwest Living Magazine - Best Winery

Exceptional Wine Comes From Exceptional Grapes

the same weekend their daughter Dylan was born. The farm was purchased from Rockie’s family in 2008. As a kid he helped his family raise apples, peaches, and cherries on the very hills where the vineyards and winery now lie. When the winery opened, Allison “retired” from teaching to work in the family business. Gravity is still very much a family endeavor. You will regularly see all the Rick’s working on the very same hills, only now the focus is great wine!

Get to know Helping Hands!!

It's wonderful that they are able to serve 80 families a month through their food pantry. The thrift store being open to the public is a great way to generate proceeds to support their programs. One of the programs supported by the proceeds is the Sam Adams tutoring program, which sounds like a valuable initiative. Additionally, it's nice to know that Helping Hands provides personal hygiene and clothing to Cassopolis and Marcellus schools. It's heartwarming to see them support the community in various ways, including utility services and scholarships.

The LaBre Law Office has over 40 years of excellence in the law. We are one of the few law local firms that can truly say we are “Michiana” lawyers because we are licensed in both Michigan and Indiana. We take a cases filed in one State and go get the evidence located in the other. We are capable and we care about you and your case. We want you to leave this office feeling educated, looked after, and with a firm grip as to your case’s status. At the initial consult, we will sit down and discuss your facts, the applicable law, and create a course of action. Throughout your case we will keep you updated with its status and treat you with fairness and respect. You can (and should) expect the attorneys to be knowledgeable on the law and actively investigate the facts of your case. Truth is, our attorneys love to study and we ensure that all stones are turned before settlement is reached or the case goes to trial. In essence, we take pride in ourselves, our service to our clients, and hold ourselves to the standard of excellence.

Who is Midwest Energy & Communications? In the simplest of terms, our vision is to create vibrant, relevant and sustainable rural communities.

In the 1930s, large utility providers refused to bring power to the rural space. This left many people, like farmers, dealing with not only the Great Depression, but the additional hardship of not having electricity.

Rather than accept that they had been left in the dark, country residents began to form rural electric cooperatives to do what the big players wouldn’t. Ours is the story of two of these cooperatives: Southeastern Michigan Rural Electric Cooperative, and Fruit Belt Electric Cooperative, both born in 1937.
 

On July 30, 1938, Fruit Belt energized lines to its first 133 customers. In 1940 it merged with Van Buren Electric Cooperative, and that same year, a diesel generating plant in Cassopolis was completed. The plant allowed The Little Co-Op That Could to provide 3,580 customers with power.

The diesel plant operated until it became obsolete, and in May 1951, it shut down for good. In its place,  Fruit Belt put a new 69,000-volt transmission line and substation into operation. Instead of generating its own power, the cooperative now purchased it wholesale from Indiana and Michigan Power.

For the next few decades, Fruit Belt celebrated smaller milestones: the 1000th security light installed in 1963, the move to a modified IBM system for billing and record-keeping in 1968, and the first bucket truck put into service in 1976.

The cooperative launched its smart grid in 1982, featuring load control and the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system. The new computer-based grid gave Fruit Belt a better way to manage its equipment and reduce the impact of outages.

Finally, in 1997, something beautiful happened: Fruit Belt Electric Cooperative and Southeastern Michigan Rural Electric Cooperative (remember them?) held merger discussions. The two cooperatives, each serving opposite sides of southern Michigan, would join under a new name. When we next opened our doors in 1998, it was as Midwest Energy Cooperative.

Since then, MEC has embraced the same spirit as our Depression-era forerunners, transforming the rural space by delivering first-in-class innovations and solutions where others won’t. We launched our propane operation in 1998, with smart meters coming shortly after in 2004. In 2015, we introduced our fiber internet service, bringing high-speed connectivity to rural areas with slow or no coverage.

Why did an energy provider get involved in fiber internet?

Since most of our customers live in rural areas, they’re impacted by a phenomenon known as the digital divide. Internet service providers prioritize the most populous areas when determining the focus for their fastest, most modern connections. Unfortunately, this leaves those living in the country with slow service, and some have no internet at all. Sound familiar? We wanted to fix that, so in 2015 we launched a project to bring fiber internet to our electric customers.

Fiber technology also gives us the power of real-time monitoring and intelligent control over our electric grid, known as distribution automation (DA). DA identifies and isolates outages and automatically reroutes electricity where possible to reduce impact. In non-outage situations, it helps us monitor equipment and more readily identifies problems.

Ultimately, fiber was the natural next step in MEC’s evolution, and we were awarded $37 million through the FCC’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) in 2020. This kicked off our current expansion plans: building over 3,000 miles of fiber across 16 Michigan counties to reach more than 30,000 unserved or underserved homes and businesses. It’s an exciting opportunity, and one the Fruit Belt founders could only have dreamed of all those years ago.

Early in 2016 we inked a deal with the Ed Lowe Foundation to purchase 500 acres of land at the intersection of Decatur Road and M60, and developed about 60 of those acres for our state-of-the-art headquarters facility, which we moved into in 2017. A question followed: what should we do with the remaining acreage?

The answer lied with the namesake of the very organization from which we purchased the land: Ed Lowe. Inventor of cat litter and highly influential entrepreneur, Lowe lived right here in Cassopolis and had a vision of southwest Michigan as a hub of industry and opportunity. We believed the best way to carry on his legacy would be to make that vision a reality.

In 2019, we founded the Southwest Michigan Advanced Research & Technology (SMART) Park. This technology and industrial park offers companies easy access to rail and road transportation and the opportunity to stand out and grow in an area on the cusp of growth and innovation. Learn more at imaginesmartpark.com.

We celebrated the opening of our new Cassopolis headquarters on Aug. 28, 2017, rebranding one last time as Midwest Energy & Communications to reflect our new, expanded focus. It’s here that we launched our community solar array in 2018, it’s here that we’re beginning our SMART Park development in 2022, and it’s here that we’ll continue to look for new and creative ways to improve our customers’ lives.

At MEC, our goal is unchanged from that of the first cooperatives nearly a century ago. Put simply: we work to ensure that small-town life doesn’t mean giving up on better living.

OUR WINES & CIDERS, AND THE WAY YOU EXPERIENCE THEM, ARE NOT WHAT YOU MAY HAVE SEEN AT OTHER WINERIES, COME WITH AN OPEN MIND AND YOU JUST MAY BE PLEASANTLY SURPRISED!

For over one hundred years, you have turned to us for honest advice, sincere compassion, and caring support. You can count on us to help you plan a personal, lasting tribute, and guide you through the many decisions that must be made during this challenging time.

We will continue to earn your trust and confidence and give you the respect, the experience and the value you desire and deserve.

Please feel free to call us (in the Cass area (269) 445-2435 - in Harbor Country (269) 756-3831) any time of the day, any day of the week, for immediate assistance. Or, stop by at your convenience. We also provide a wealth of information here on our web site so you can learn more from the privacy of your own home.

Eugene and Lois Wagner, Elizabeth Wagner Findlay