Community members participate in march to end child abuse
Community residents gathered Sunday for the first annual child abuse and neglect prevention event, March to the Park: Ending Child Abuse.
The event, hosted and run by the Child and Family Enrichment Council of Isabella County, CAFE, was held at the Broadway Theater in downtown Mount Pleasant and was open to the public.
“April is national Child Abuse Prevention Month,” said Samantha Dush, CAFE family advocate and event organizer. “We hope to use the event as a way to get prevention tools into the community and provide information to parents on ways to keep their children safe.”
The event began at the Broadway Theater and consisted of Tricia of Tunes n’ Tales, a children’s guitar performer, singing some songs for the children in attendance. Dush gave a quick presentation on body safety, followed by a police-escorted march through the downtown area to Island Park for a children’s carnival.
“The idea of a march is supposed to be symbolic of the issues of child abuse coming to light,” Dush said. “We hope to teach children about body safety and teach against abuse.”
Terra Pleiness, CAFE Parent Educator and event organizer, said the event was also planned in part to raise awareness of the organization’s existence in the community.
“We kind of wanted to rebrand ourselves,” she said. “I feel like a lot of people don’t know about our organization and the resources we offer, and we kind of wanted to raise awareness of that.”
Pleiness said CAFE, established in 1984, offers parent education classes, counseling, family advocacy and forensic interviews for Isabella County. She said the organization hopes to hold the event again next year.
Community members and therapists Kim Seidel and Amylynn Gross said they attended the event at the theater in support of CAFE.
“I came today to support CAFE,” Seidel said. “I’m new to the board of directors for CAFE and I also came to support the clinical community.”
Gross said she loved the message of the presentation.
“I think it is important to teach kids about being safe and about safe places where they can go,” she said.
The children’s carnival at Island Park followed the march and featured games, food and prizes.
