This is Child Abuse Prevention month

More than 60 child abuse prevention groups across Iowa are sponsoring a variety of awareness events this month, which Governor Vilsack has declared “Child Abuse Prevention Month.” State organizers say it’ll be a busy April.Colleen Hennesy is project manager of Prevent Child Abuse Iowa. She says statistics find 13 of every one-thousand Iowa children were victims of abuse last year. Ten Iowa children died of abuse in 1998 and three have already died this year.Hennesy says the blue ribbon campaign began in 1989 when a Virginia woman tied one on her van. It was a memorial for the woman’s three-year-old grandson who had been murdered by his mother’s boyfriend.Hennesy says more than 35-thousand blue ribbons are being passed out to Iowans this month. For more information, call 800-CHILDREN.