April 14, 2017 (Album1, Album2) - The community gathered on the downtown Center square to unit against child abuse. April is Child Abuse Prevention month and the Shelby County Children's Advocacy Center along with the Shelby County Rainbow Room meet on the square to the Blue Ribbon Tree and the Butterfly Release.
Bro. Rob Merriman, pastor of First Baptist Church of Shelbyville, said a prayer for the safety of the community and a safe place to raise our kids.
Wayne Christian, Texas Railroad Commissioner, spoke about the constitution and what it instructs us to do, “[In 2016] 222 children have lost their lives in the state of Texas. Folks, what did our constitution say was the most important thing that government was here to protect? Number one was life. And when we don’t protect those young lives, then we are not doing the duty, number one that God gave us here, and number two our forefathers gave us the order to do.” He thanked everyone for being at the event as a community to unite to help prevent child abuse and protect those who can't protect themselves.
Shelby County had 83 confirmed cases of child abuse in the year of 2016. There were zero child deaths due to child abuse reported in Shelby County since the last Blue Ribbon Tree event which was the first time in over four years.
Alice Pate, Rainbow Room representative, spoke about the Blue Ribbon tree ceremony as members of Child Protective services handed out a ribbon for each of the confirmed victims of child abuse in Shelby County. “We tie a blue ribbon for each of the 83 confirmed cases of abuse in Shelby County. Then we have thrown in a few extras for the children we don’t know about yet so we are tying 90 ribbons.”
Following everyone tying the blue ribbons in the tree, Mayor Chadwick, president of Farmers State Bank who is the sponsor of the Butterfly Release, shared the story of the butterfly as members of the Shelby County Advocacy Center handed out the delicate butterflies in their envelopes.
With a countdown from 10, everyone opened up their envelopes releasing their butterfly to carry their wish to God.
