SALT LAKE CITY — April is Child Abuse Prevention month.
Monday morning, as part of the Pinwheels for Prevention project, members of the community planted 1,720 pinwheels in the lawn of Primary Children’s Hospital.
The pinwheels represent the bright and carefree childhoods that all children should experience.
“It symbolizes that we have the possibility to make a change that we can actually help children if we all work together,” said Katy Welkie, the Administrator and CEO of Primary Children’s Hospital.
Each of the 1,720 pinwheels represents an American child who died as a result of child abuse in 2017.
For Katy Welkie, she says she’s planting a pinwheel in honor of a special child she once met.
“It was a little boy who had been sexually abused and he later went on to die and it was one of the most tragic cases that I’d ever seen and, as a young nurse, it was very impressionable,” said Welkie.
Gwen Knight, the Executive Director for Prevent Child Abuse Utah says signs of child abuse include a change in behavior in a child, if a child is showing signs of fear or aggression or if there are any physical marks on a child.
“This is one of the things we can do, we can report child abuse early we can make sure that families who are in stress have the resources they need and as a community, we wrap ourselves around and really help people be successful as parents,” said Knight.
If you do suspect a child you know is being abused, the best thing to do is to report it.
You can call the Division of Child and Family Services at 1-855-323-3237 or call law enforcement.
