Why are blue pinwheel gardens suddenly sprouting up in downtown Bel Air?
April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month, a month dedicated to recognizing the importance of families and communities working together to strengthen families to prevent child abuse and neglect. And lately in downtown Bel Air, Maryland, we’ve been noticing a sudden “sprouting” of blue pinwheels throughout the downtown area, and some of us have been curious as to what those pinwheels might represent.
Turns out, back in 2008, Prevent Child Abuse America introduced the pinwheel as the national symbol for child abuse prevention. Why? Because by its very nature, the pinwheel connotes playfulness, joy, and childhood. It has come to serve as a physical reminder of the great childhoods we want for all children.
In addition, as a symbol, the cyclical nature of the pinwheel calls to mind the positive cycles of love and support that advocates want to help families create. They plant pinwheel gardens to raise awareness about the seriousness of the effects of child abuse and neglect in our community, and hope that their presence will make everyone think about the role they can play in protecting our children.
This year, staff from CASA of Harford County and the Harford County Child Advocacy Center took to the streets of Bel Air to plant pinwheel gardens in various locations to highlight the importance of child abuse prevention. Pinwheel displays are located throughout Bel Air on N. Bond Street, adjacent to the Newberry Café and Bakery, outside of the Department of Community Services at 125 N. Main Street, in front of the Harford County Child Advocacy Center at 23 N. Main Street and in front of the Harford County Sheriff’s Department at 45 S. Main Street.
CASA of Harford County expressed their thanks to the following community partners who have supported these efforts during the month of April:
- Department of Community Services,
- Child Advocacy Center,
- Harford Mutual Insurance,
- Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler and the Sheriff’s Department for allowing the planting of pinwheels on their properties,
- The Newberry Café and Bakery for selling blue awareness ribbons in their shop to benefit CASA of Harford County, and
- The Nest on Main for raffling off a gift basket in their shop to also benefit CASA.
Preventing child abuse and neglect is the responsibility of the entire community, not just certain child serving and law enforcement agencies. So what can the community do? Communities can continue to work toward combating child abuse by supporting and encouraging each other in protecting our children.
As a community, we can come together and talk about the organizations and resources available and the types of programs they have to offer. The goal is to expand the services available and establish a shared community philosophy, or mutual agreement of efforts. By coming together and supporting one another, we can effectively increase a sense of responsibility among adults.
(Source: Ross P. DiEdoardo, Director, CASA of Harford County)
~ Posted by Richard Webster, Ace News Today / Connect with Richard on Facebook and Twitter
