The color blue, Cadillac Ranch, pinwheels raise awareness of child abuse

Local organizations are raising awareness of national Child Abuse Prevention Month by painting Cadillac Ranch blue, riding wheels and holding more events to come.

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

Cadillac Ranch turns blue as the Texas Department of Family Protective Services in partnership with Saint Francis Ministries paint the local monument in honor of national Child Abuse Prevention month.

“This is one of the ways we are trying to raise awareness for Child Abuse Prevention Month. There are over 700 children in our area who 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 community engagement specialist, said.

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

“We always choose Cadillac Ranch because it’s free, it’s informative and in this way we don’t just share the message with locals who hear about this through the media, we also hope to collaborate with travelers who stop seeing it’s blue and we hope they want to learn more or get involved with child abuse awareness in their area,” Butler said.

According to DFPS, in fiscal year 2023 Texas, the state of Texas had 7,757,746 resident children, and 58,120 confirmed victims of child abuse or neglect. Locally, through the same period, 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 share this with the community. Blue is the official color of National Child Abuse Prevention (Month); we will wear blue throughout the month to increase our impact and encourage the community to do so,” Ethan Woods, Director of Sustainability and Reintegration with Saint Francis Ministries, said.

On Tuesday at The Bridge Children’s Advocacy Center, local law enforcement, child advocates, educators, first responders and many others participated in a bike ride of more than 1,000 in the organization’s park in honor of Bullying Prevention Month of Children.

Each year, The Bridge plants brightly colored pinwheels to represent every child in 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 pins.

“The pins represent children’s resilience to how the wheels are always turning, and their beauty,” said The Bridge Executive Director Shelly Bohannon.

“We do these events because we want people to notice, respond, and report if a child is being hurt or neglected. We want people to say something. It takes the whole community to protect children. We can’t do this alone, we do these events because we want people to notice, respond, and to report if a child is being hurt or neglected. So teachers, child care workers, neighbors, everyone has a responsibility to protect our children, because they don’t have that ability,” Bohannon added.

According to Bohannon, the pinwheels ride has become a national 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 past years, the organization has seen an increase in child abuse cases across the region following the COVID-19 pandemic; however, recently, the organization is seeing that number of cases begin to drop to an “average” of annual cases.

“We work with law enforcement, prosecutors, mental health/treatment. We’re the agency that brings them together, and we just help make it possible for kids and families to get all those services … We work to be able to help kids and families get back to what they can become normal for them after a stressful 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.

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