The Athens County Commissioners hosted their weekly meeting, Monday morning. The commissioners declared April Child Abuse Awareness month and received an update from Ed Brown, Agriculture and Natural Resources Educator for the Athens County Extension Office.
Monday morning, the Athens County Commissioners and Athens County Children Services officially declared the month of April Child Abuse Prevention month.
“Children Services came in to give a proclamation regarding child-abuse prevention awareness and dedicating the month of April to the cause,” said Charlie Adkins, county commissioner.
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Dedicating April to child-abuse awareness is a nationally recognized event, said Robin Webb public information officer for Children Services.
“It’s actually not just Ohio that is participating, other states around the country are also participating,” Webb said.
Children Services’ events will kick off Tuesday with a pinwheel dedication ceremony.
“Around 40 volunteers will come Monday afternoon and help put all of the pinwheels in the ground,” Webb said. “And then on Tuesday, at 11:15 a.m., people from all over the community will come to join in dedicating the pinwheels to the children of Athens.”
Webb said that Children Services expects, staff members from Ohio University, the Mayor Paul Wiehl, Athens County community members, and other elected officials to be in attendance.
“It will be a very brief ceremony, but it will be a very nice event,” Webb said.
Another event that the county has planned is Wear Blue Day, on April 8. Blue is the color associated with Child Abuse Prevention Month.
“It is a social media driven campaign, with the hope being that people from different organizations wear blue for the day and then take a picture of themselves,” Webb said. “Then we hope they will post it to their social media so we can share it on our profile, in the process gaining awareness.”
There are a few other small events in the works that will take place throughout the month of April, Webb added.
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Ed Brown, agriculture and natural resources educator for the Athens County Extension Office, was also in attendance at the weekly commissioners meeting.
Brown, who started at his current position in October, came in to give the commissioners a brief update on his work so far.
“Ed’s job is to educate the people of Athens County on agriculture and basically anything that pertains to nature,” Chris Chmiel, county commissioner, said.
With springtime around the corner, Brown said that this time of year will be key to judging how important his job is.
“I have definitely heard from more people recently, mostly asking questions about getting their soil ready, whether it’s for a garden or for crops,” Brown said.
Through running hands-on workshops and working on improving individual skills, Brown hopes to improve agricultural education in Athens County.
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