Club active in child abuse prevention

The McMinnville Evening Exchange Club members will join thousands of fellow Exchangites for ‘Believe in the Blue’ this Saturday. The local meeting will be held at Three Star Mall from noon to 2 p.m.

Believe in the Blue, the blue ribbon symbolizing child abuse prevention awareness, is the name of the child abuse prevention project that nearly 800 Exchange Clubs and 25,000 members are participating in across the country. In a coordinated effort, all clubs will hand out materials at the same time.

April is Child Abuse Prevention Month and Saturday will be the single biggest child abuse prevention service event in Exchange’s 98-year history.

The project is an effort to reach families all across the nation with helpful, positive parenting tips. Exchange believes parents have the power to make positive parenting choices in the lives of their children.

‘This will be an event to raise awareness about the positive impact parents and caregivers can have on children and to offer some helpful tips about positive parenting,’ said Exchange’s National President Rob Davidson.

More than 500,000 parenting tip cards will be handed out in a two-hour period across the country. On the cards will be printed tips for peaceful bedtimes and how to avoid arguments. Last year’s cards included tips on better parenting and shopping with children.

The National Exchange Club is a group of men and women working to make America a better place to live through one national project, the Prevention of Child Abuse, and other community service projects. To date, the National Exchange Club’s efforts have helped more than 619,000 families and 1.5 million children break the cycle of child abuse through its parent aide programs and public education projects.

Parents are encouraged to stop by the mall and pick up one of the Parenting Tips cards. For more information about this program visit the National Exchange Club Web site at www.nationalexchangeclub.org.