April 9, 2015 - Children's advocacy groups as well as local volunteers and residents gathered on the Center square Thursday, April 2, 2015 to decorate the Blue Ribbon Tree in remembrance of those children who have been victims of abuse for the past year.
Tim Perkins, Hurst Street Church of Christ, opened the event with a prayer and shared some history of decorating the tree with blue ribbons, "This is something I think a lot of us look forward to as a tangible way to show how we actually feel about child abuse," said Perkins. "It's something that's close to our heart or we wouldn't be here for this."
Perkins continued by explaining the process of hanging a blue ribbon started with a woman named Bonnie Finney who, upon receiving word her grandchild had died at the hands of his parents, tied a blue ribbon to the antennae of her car to remind her of the bruised and battered body of her child.
"Of course the blue ribbons have come over the last 30 years to signify composition of child abuse and as a reminder of what child abuse does," said Perkins.
Following Perkins opening remarks and prayer, Alice Pate, Rainbow Room Volunteer, shared some remarks about the event, "We do have a little cross in front of the tree, since we did this last year two children have died at the hands of their parents," said Pate. "I did add a few extra ribbons this year, we had 80 confirmed victims of child abuse, but for every one that they know about there are children that are suffering that nobody knows about, so I added a few extra ribbons for those children."
After Pate spoke those who gathered for the event commenced to tying ribbons to the tree.
