Child Welfare Board shoe project to raise awareness of child abuse, foster families
DANIEL CLIFTON • PICAYUNE EDITOR
MARBLE FALLS — If you have a couple pairs of children’s shoes no one wears anymore, and you’d like to help raise awareness of and prevent child abuse, consider donating los zapatos to the Burnet County Child Welfare Board.
“We need about 100 shoes,” board member Marsha Neel said.
The board members will hang and place the donated shoes in a tree on the Burnet County Courthouse Square in Burnet at 1 p.m. April 14. The shoes, Neel said, will symbolize all the Burnet County children who are currently in foster care.
The project is called “Walk in the Shoes of a Foster Child.”
“We want to bring attention to the need for more foster parents and families here in Burnet County as well as bring awareness to the problems of child abuse,” Neel said. “Right now, we don’t have enough foster families in Burnet County, so many children have to go outside the area and away from their schools. It’s tough on them.”
April is also Child Abuse Prevention and Awareness Month, so officials hope to use the tree to stimulate conversations about the problem.
While the Burnet County Child Welfare Board doesn’t work directly with children who are victims of abuse or neglect, it does provide many support services for organizations and foster families that do interact with the youth. One of the biggest ways it supports not just those groups but children in general is by working to educate people on child abuse. This way, Neel explained, it’s more difficult for the issue to go unnoticed.
While Burnet County has a number of child abuse cases, Neel said she and others believe it has more to do with people knowing the signs of abuse and stepping forward for the youth.
Anyone interested in donating shoes for the shoe tree, which will remain through April, can drop them off at First United Methodist Church of Marble Falls, 1101 Bluebonnet Drive in Marble Falls, or call Neel at (830) 613-5037 to arrange for a pick-up.
daniel@thepicayune.com