“I am a part of all that I have met,” said Lord Tennyson, and Major Christopher Parker’s experience surely echoes those words. Every place he goes and every place he leaves, Christopher makes a lasting impression. As an Air Force officer in a transient lifestyle, he has been sent to California, North Dakota, Texas, Arizona, and Illinois in the last 11 years. Such change could lead to isolation, but Christopher has made volunteering his mission and so to “leave each community a better place than when I came.”

In the past, Christopher has volunteered with Meals on Wheels, Community Recycling programs, and HIV education centers; but as he watched his two nieces grow up, he realized he wanted his community work to include children. When he saw an advertisement for CASA on a Metro bus, Christopher’s first thought was something like this: “What better way to help a community than by providing a voice for children who wouldn’t otherwise have one?”

Since beginning his tenure with Voices for Children in August 2005, Christopher has done just that. He has provided a voice to some teenage boys who wouldn’t otherwise have one. In fact, Christopher has far surpassed the organization’s expectations of a dedicated volunteer. Says Attorney/Supervisor Christy Keele: “Christopher has done an outstanding job as a volunteer advocate. He has taken on challenging cases from the beginning, as well as in the middle. He has traveled far distances to visit his children and has succeeded in bridging the gap between several teenage boys and the court system. Christopher has not only provided these boys with his outstanding advocacy skills, but he has gone above and beyond the call of duty in providing them with hope for a brighter future. In fact, the first time Christopher met with the three older boys they were enamored by his rank as a Major in the Air Force and his position as an intelligence officer. As such, his ability to inspire the boys brought with it words of hope for their future.

While providing advocacy as well as mentoring, Christopher is continually inspired by being the only constant presence in the boys’ lives. One child in particular, he says, “has had so many people come and go throughout the process. It is comforting to me to be the one true constant and friendly face along the way.” In addition, in relating to the boys he represents, Christopher looks back to his own days as a teenager and focuses on the similarities and struggles that all teenage boys go through.

One of Christopher’s biggest challenges has been to accept and “realize the things he can control and those that he cannot.” This is no more evident than in a midstream case, especially one open since 1999, with the parents’ rights terminated in 2003. As a result, the children have been sitting in limbo with a permanency plan of Independent Living and Adoption for the youngest. Often, a case like this feels never ending and stagnant. Even so, Christopher has jumped right in and has made tremendous progress with the boys’ permanency plan while getting the eldest boy enrolled in ILP classes and the youngest boy on a track to independence along with his brothers. Christopher’s single piece of advice for taking on a midstream case is to “be realistic that it will take time because the progress is not as noticeable. It is natural to feel behind. Just wait and see, and trust that things are going to work out.” Most certainly, Christopher has taken his own advice and has succeeded in getting these boys set on the right track.