COEUR d'ALENE - So small, so sad.

The faces of many of the children featured in a video shown Thursday during North Idaho CASA's annual Ray of Hope breakfast reflected fear, anxiety, despair. Some had no expression - a little girl with a vacant stare, a boy who looked as if he had given up, like he had forgotten how to smile.

"What CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) does is gives these children a chance," said Sandra Gunn, the nonprofit's director.

Several hundred people attended the benefit breakfast at The Coeur d'Alene Resort, and they share a common thread, a desire to help kids like this in North Idaho.

For many, it will be financial support for the agency.

But it is CASA's volunteer advocates who do the heavy lifting when it comes to helping kids.

Many of the advocates attended the breakfast, and gave the crowd a glimpse of how they provide a voice for the community's most vulnerable children.

One by one each volunteer stood up and in one sentence articulated the gravity of the child abuse they encounter and their personal commitment to help.

"I am for the child who was left in her crib so often she began eating the edges of her mattress like a caged animal," said Morgan Adkens, a social work intern and CASA advocate.

The next advocate said she is for the child whose parent lies so often the child no longer knows what it means to tell the truth.

"I'm an advocate for the child who has been abused by her uncle and abandoned by her parents," said another.

They stand up for kids whose families can't provide safe homes, children with mothers who do meth in front of them, kids who have been sexually abused by a parent.

"I'm for the newborn child whose mother sold him for a belly button ring and a pair of flip-flops," said another advocate.

CASA provides volunteer court advocacy for children who have been removed from their homes because they've been abandoned, neglected or abused. With parents who are often absent, in trouble with the law, or both, these children enter foster care. Most decisions about how their basic needs will be met will be made in court.

Appointed by a judge, a CASA volunteer advocates on behalf of the child. They dedicate their time to investigating, monitoring, reporting and speaking up for the children.

CASA is court-mandated, and receives grant funding, but relies heavily on donations in order to stay operational. Funds are needed to recruit, train and supervise volunteer advocates.

The agency serves about 750 children annually in the state's five northern counties. In 2011, they helped 520 kids in Kootenai County. The Ray of Hope breakfast has become the organization's signature fundraiser.

In addition to funding, they always need more volunteer advocates, said volunteer Cindy Doss.

"When you help the children in our community, you're helping your own children," Doss said. "They're your kids' friends, the children they go to school with. My kids have everything they need; I need to help these other children."

Whitney Ball, another social work student and intern at CASA, said she was recently asked how she sleeps at night knowing so many kids are being subjected to so much injustice.

"To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world," Ball said. "CASA gives you the opportunity to go beyond being angry and do something to help a child."