PREVENT CHILD ABUSE BOONE COUNTY RECEIVES $8,590 GRANT FROM WOMEN OF IMPACT
Prevent Child Abuse Boone County exists to educate and inform the communities of Boone County on how to keep children safe and ways to help prevent child abuse and neglect. Boone County is very fortunate to have such a dedicated group of people who volunteer their time to run this organization! While they have successfully ran multiple programs focused on raising awareness for child abuse prevention, they shared with our Women of Impact (WoI) philanthropic giving group some of their larger scaled ideas, including the Safe Sleep Campaign initiative, and how they would like to further help the children of Boone County. Our WoI members responded by voting Prevent Child Abuse Boone County as the 2019 second quarter grant recipient.
Today, Becky McClure met with WoI members and community supporters to receive the $8,590 grant. “Receiving this grant is huge for us. We are really excited for the opportunities it will bring us and the ways it will allow us to continue supporting the children here in Boone County”, says Becky. The organization plans to use the grant to start a Safe Sleep Campaign, which will provide Safe Sleep Onesies to all infants born in Boone County. “By providing a onesie and information about safe sleep, we can teach the importance of prevention from the earliest beginnings“, says Becky. 
“We are also going to give onesies to the local doctors to distribute in the practices to families.”
Two major initiatives Prevent Child Abuse Boone County has launched in the past are the Pinwheel Gardens and Christmas Wishes. Pinwheel Gardens were planted all over Boone County in April of this year as part of Child Abuse Awareness and Prevention Month. Each pinwheel is a reminder that every child deserves the chance to be raised in a healthy and safe environment. In 2018, Prevent Child Abuse worked with the Department of Child Services (DCS) to grant Christmas Wishes for the children DCS serves. Through fundraising, they were able to raise over $10,000 to purchase gifts for 95 children, which gifted 3-4 wishes per child. “Many of the children involved in the project didn’t even understand the concept of wishing for something that they wanted rather than needed“, says McClure.
Community information and trainings are available through Prevent Child Abuse Boone County. They provide information for parents and caregivers on several topics, including internet safety, safe sleep, and how to recognize abuse and neglect. For more information on this organization and how you can get involved, visit their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/BOONEPCA/ or call Becky McClure at 765.481.7260.