By Derek Weaver
The Scene staff
A playful wire statue of a boy is being used to get pledges from students, faculty, staff and visitors for Child Abuse Prevention Month in April.
The statue, called “Blue Ribbon Buddy,” is displayed in the Highlander Lounge, along with a poster that reads, “We Support Strong Families and Safe Children.”
Early childhood education major Richard Rice, 61, is one of dozens of people who have written pledges on blue note cards and hung them on Buddy.
“I am going to attempt become a better human, to understand children’s responses and to try to remain a child myself and not to be so rigid in my adult eyes,“ he wrote.
Rice is president of the Forest Park Early Childhood Educators Circle (EC2), a club of about 30 students who work with and on behalf of children. They have placed Buddy in the Highlander Lounge in April for the past two years.
“As (we were) discussing how to generate understanding and appreciation for the work of early education professionals, I offered to bring Buddy to campus to use as a symbol of the work we engage in to protect children and strengthen families and communities,” said Dahna Willis, assistant professor and EC2 coordinator.
Buddy was a gift to Willis from the Missouri Association for the Education of Young Children’s Board of Directors 10 years ago for her service and leadership as president.
Other examples of pledges on Buddy include:
“I promise not to harm any children and be an amazing big sister to my little sister,” by education and counseling major Kaira James, 19.
“Respect myself and others,” by nursing major Marshall McGee, 19.
“I promise to teach from right and wrong and that there is more to life than what the media shows,” by radiology major Haris Dizdardevic, 20.
At the end of April, EC2 plans to remove the blue note cards from Buddy, tie them together and use them to make a “quilt” that is likely to be displayed in F-317 offices and other locations on campus.
The club also has been trying to raise awareness of child abuse and neglect this month by distributing bookmarks with statistics and other facts, as well as stickers with blue ribbons and the slogan “We’re in This Together.”
Buddy is designed to remind people of the atrocities committed and dehumanizing of children, which runs deeper than many people think, according to Rice.
“We think of child abuse as beating on children, that kind of stuff,” he said. “But also you got young kids being forced into sex. It’s so much that goes along with child-abuse prevention besides just screaming and hollering at a child. So Buddy represents all of those things.”