Cadillac Ranch goes blue and pinwheels are planted for Child Abuse Prevention Month

Local organizations are raising awareness for national Child Abuse Prevention Month by painting the Cadillac Ranch blue, planting pinwheels, and holding more events to come.

Wednesday morning, the Texas Department of Family Protective Services, in collaboration with Saint Francis Ministries and additional community groups, came together to Paint the Cadillac Ranch Blue, the official color of Child Abuse Prevention Month.

"This is one of the ways we try to raise awareness for Child Abuse Prevention Month. There are over 700 children in our area that are victims of abuse or neglect, and we want to be a voice for those children and just encourage that if you see something, say something," Courtney Butler, DFPS faith-based community engagement specialist, said.

This year is the fourth year the organizations have come together to spray paint the local monument. Butler said that they continue coloring the Cadillac Ranch in an effort to raise awareness with locals, as well as travelers.

"We always choose Cadillac Ranch because it is free, it's a statement and this way we are not only sharing the message with the locals who hear about this through the media, we are also hoping to engage with travelers who stop see it's blue and hopefully want to learn more or become involved with child abuse awareness in their area," Butler said.

According to DFPS, in the 2023 Texas fiscal year, the state of Texas had 7,757,746 children residents, with 58,120 confirmed victims of child abuse or neglect. Locally, through the same time frame, Randall and Potter counties had a total of 64,450 children in the population, with 747 of those children confirmed as victims of child abuse or neglect.

"Child abuse is an ongoing issue, so we do this every year to raise awareness and make sure we are sharing this with the community. Blue is the official color for National Child Abuse Prevention (Month); we will be wearing blue all month to further our impact and encourage the community to do the same," Ethan Woods, Director of Permanency and Reunification with Saint Francis Ministries, said.

On Tuesday at The Bridge Children's Advocacy Center, local law enforcement, children advocates, educators, first responders and more participated in the planting of more than 1,000 pinwheels on the organization's lawn in honor of Child Abuse Prevention Month.

Each year, The Bridge plants brightly colored pinwheels to represent every child across the Texas Panhandle who has been interviewed by The Bridge staff in the past year. To represent the children served in 2023, The Bridge planted a total of 1,021 pinwheels.

"The pinwheels represent the children's resilience with the way the pinwheels are always turning, and their beauty," said The Bridge Executive Director Shelly Bohannon.

"We do these events because we want people to recognize, respond, and report if a child is being hurt or neglected. We want people to say something. It takes the whole community to protect the children. We can't do this alone, so teachers, childcare workers, neighbors, everyone has the responsibility to protect our children, because they don't have that power," Bohannon added.

According to Bohannon, the planting of the pinwheels has become a nationwide recognition for Child Abuse Prevention Month. In honor of the month, the organization has also planted pinwheels in all of their satellite offices, including its Dumas, Pampa, Clarendon and Hereford locations.

Bohannon said that in previous years, the organization had seen a spike in cases of child abuse throughout the area following the COVID-19 pandemic; however, recently, the organization is seeing those number of cases begin to drop back to the "average" amount of annual cases.

"We work with law enforcement, prosecutors, mental health / medical. We are that agency that connects them, and we just help facilitate children and families to be able to access all of those services. ... We work to be able to help children and families to go back to what might be normal for them after a crisis situation," Bohannon said.

"We encourage everyone to visit our website; we have links to information, everything they might need. We just want everyone to be knowledgeable and empowered to protect the children in our community," Bohannon added.

In addition, the organization will also host a virtual Go Blue Day on April 12, where the community is encouraged to wear blue and post their photos on social media using the hashtags #goblueday and #thebridgecac to spread awareness for Child Abuse Prevention Month.

On April 27, The Bridge, in partnership with Get Fit Amarillo, will also host "A Mile In Their Shoes" event, beginning at 9 a.m. at The Bridge, where community members will participate in a mile run/walk to spread awareness about child abuse.

To register for the fun run/walk, go online to https://bridgecac.org .

This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Color blue, Cadillac Ranch, pinwheels raise child abuse awareness