April is Child Abuse Awareness month and throughout the month, you may see blue ribbons or pinwheels used to try to raise awareness.
At Covenant Children’s, staff members and volunteers tied 1,033 blue ribbons to the fence out in front of the building.
“That is for the 1,033 victims, confirmed victims of child abuse or neglect for 2016 Lubbock County for 2016,” trauma nurse coordinator Belinda Waters said.
She said the ribbons are blue for a very specific reason.
“There was a grandmother in 1989 that lost a grandson and her granddaughter was critically injured and they had been abused by their parents,’ Waters said.
“She swore she would never forget the bruises she saw on them. She realized they had bruises and she had never done anything about it before that, had never said anything to anyone, so she tied a blue ribbon on the antenna of her car to get people to ask ‘why did you do that, what does the blue stand for?'” Waters said.
There are also pinwheels out in front and lining the driveway and those were donated by Sondra’s Song.
“When I noticed that other people were doing pinwheels nationally, it just drew my eye, something fun, whimsical,” Sandi Turner, director of Sondra’s Song said. “And then the sign brings awareness, makes them drive around and see what the sign says. So we just wanted to bring more awareness, bring something colorful to a sad story, and what we want to do is spin into action.”
Waters said there are some signs people could look for when it comes to recognizing child abuse or neglect.
“Bruises is going to be the main one,” Waters said. “Any time they even see a child that, we call it, not meeting their milestones, they’re not potty-training at a certain age, they’re not talking, they’re not crawling, they’re not doing any of those things, it may not be an abuse situation, but at least a neglect situation.”