Wednesday was the day to wear blue to bring awareness to child abuse and neglect.
All across the country and here in Lima, people showed their support of children of abuse and neglect. They were wearing blue in the office and even on air as did guests and the crew of Noon Edition. Children Services officials say the abuse and neglect of a child is preventable and it takes a community to protect our children. Last year, Allen County Children Services made more than 800 assessments on cases surrounding abuse and neglect.
"We had just under 4,000 calls come in for the year so definitely on the increase in addition to the families we are serving and supporting. Just multi-need and the complexities that are involved with the families. They're involved with us much longer than they used to be," said Cyndi Scanland, executive director at Allen County Children Services.
To help bring awareness, businesses took the "Wear Blue" in a different direction. Sara's Sweets created a "Blue Raspberry Snowball" cupcake just for the day.
"Just thinking, when they walk in the shop we have usually 100 to 200 people in our doors each day you know, well what's that blue cupcake about and that gets them thinking more along the lines of being of aware of looking out for child abuse situations," said Sara Anderson, Sara Sweets owner.
Allen County Children Services is encouraging anyone who wore blue Wednesday to send your snapshots to their Facebook page to enter the "Wear Blue" fun picture contest.
Winners will be picked at their Community Breakfast for Kids on April 25th.
