"Find Courage as a Community to Prevent Child Abuse"

The Blue Ribbon Campaign originated in the spring of 1989 when Bonnie Finney of Virginia tied a blue ribbon to her car antenna as a tribute to her three year-old grandson, Michael Bubba Dickinson. He had died at the hands of his mother’s abusive partner. Bonnie chose the blue ribbon to symbolize the color of her grandson’s bruises. Since 1997, KIDS Center has coordinated the Blue Ribbon Campaign during National Child Abuse Prevention Month every April in order to reach everyone in Central Oregon with the message of child abuse prevention.

Each blue ribbon distributed and worn throughout the month of April symbolizes the injuries of all children who have been abused. The Tree of Hope in front of KIDS Center blooms annually with thousands of blue ribbons to signify the suspected cases of child abuse reported each year in Central Oregon.

We invite you to tie a ribbon on the Tree of Hope any time during the month of April. Come grab a ribbon at the base of the tree in front of KIDS Center, and tie it on a branch in honor of someone in your life who has been abused, or in honor of all the children in the community who suffer silently.

This year, the Tree of Hope held 2,600 ribbons to commemorate our small survivors here in Central Oregon.

Interested in helping us with the 2009 Blue Ribbon Campaign? Please sign up to volunteer.