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Pinwheels for Child Abuse Prevention Month

planting blue pinwheels outside the Davenport police station
WVIK News
planting blue pinwheels outside the Davenport police station

Brooke Hendrickx from Every Child says the pinwheels symbolize the happy, safe, and healthy childhood we want for our kids.

WVIK News

"We recognize that what happens before kindergarten matters. If we can prevent or treat the trauma of child abuse and neglect in the early years, we can mitigate its impact into the later years and adulthood."

Joining her was Davenport Mayor Mike Matson.

"April is Child Abuse Prevention Month to raise awareness, but quite frankly every month should be child abuse prevention month, every week, every hour, every day we should do everything we can to help the children in need."

Hendrickx says last year there were more than 5,000 reports of child abuse in the Quad Cities, and many more cases probably were not reported. She estimates the cost at thousands of dollars each day - in medical bills, legal cases, and the long-lasting impact of childhood trauma.

A native of Detroit, Herb Trix began his radio career as a country-western disc jockey in Roswell, New Mexico (“KRSY, your superkicker in the Pecos Valley”), in 1978. After a stint at an oldies station in Topeka, Kansas (imagine getting paid to play “Louie Louie” and “Great Balls of Fire”), he wormed his way into news, first in Topeka, and then in Freeport Illinois. While a graduate student in the Public Affairs Reporting Program at the University of Illinois at Springfield (then known as Sangamon State University), he got his first taste of public radio, covering Illinois state government for WUIS. Here in the Quad Cities, Herb worked for WHBF Radio before coming to WVIK in 1987. Herb also produces the weekly public affairs feature Midwest Week – covering the news behind the news by interviewing reporters about the stories they cover.