RICHMOND, Va. –
The Betty Ackerman Child Development Center on Defense Supply Center Richmond, Virginia held a pinwheel parade promoting National Child Abuse Prevention Month April 14.
The event was hosted by DSCR Installation Management Security and Emergency Services, in conjunction with the Morale, Welfare and Recreation office and CDC staff members. It was organized to help raise awareness about the importance of protecting children and to encourage everyone to do their part in creating safe environments for children to grow and thrive.
“Events like this are important because they help educate people on what they can do to prevent and/or report child abuse,” said DLA Installation Management Richmond’s Family Advocacy Program Manager Rhiannon Jackson. “This is a creative way to help bring awareness to issues people generally find difficult to discuss.”
The parade featured children and staffers from the CDC along with parents and employees on DSCR, many dressed in blue, toting miniature blue pinwheels. McGruff the Crime Dog and Sparky the Fire Dog made appearances.
Adopted in 2008 by the organization Prevent Child Abuse America, pinwheels have become the national symbol for child abuse prevention.
At the end of the parade, Major Ronnie Armstead of the Richmond, Virginia, Police Department gave closing remarks followed by the planting of everyone’s pinwheel in the pinwheel garden located on the front lawn of the CDC, where they will stay the entire month of April.
According to PreventChildAbuseAmerica.org a pinwheel garden is a visible reminder to keep the prevention of child abuse at the forefront of people’s minds and are a powerful way to engage people and elicit emotion.