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The Little Things are BIG Things
You hear all the time the importance of not taking for granted what you have. Let me share a story about how the things you may consider to be little are very big to others. A Marion County grandmother recently found her four bedroom doublewide mobile home overflowing when eight of her grandchildren came to live …
ReadPaying It Forward
When Shannon Daily, house parent at the Arnette House, was teaching a Life Skills class to foster youth in the Independent Living (IL) program, she never imagined the reaction she would elicit from one of the girls. A few months before Christmas 2013, during a normal Life Skills class, Shannon taught a lesson entitled, Your …
ReadPrograms bring ‘invisible’ signs of child abuse to forefront
Published April 2, 2014 in the Ocala Star Banner. By April Warren A warm breeze swept across the grassy field outside West Marion Community Hospital on Tuesday afternoon, curling underneath the reflective petals of dozens of pinwheels and turning the green patch into a blur of blue shimmer. “We can feel the wind but we …
ReadWhat Comes to Mind When You Think of Child Abuse?
Published in the Lake Sentinel on April 6th. By Gail Burry When people think of child abuse what comes to mind first? Bruises? Broken arms? Or Worse? Of course, all of these instances are forms of child abuse, but they’re not what make up the majority of cases in today’s society. Unlike what may come …
ReadWill You Open Your Heart?
Open Your Heart … and your home to change lives forever. Not just the lives of others, but yours as well. That’s the message behind Open Your Heart, a Hernando County event aimed at recruiting foster and adoptive parents for Kids Central, Inc. Taking place at the First United Methodist Church of Spring Hill on …
ReadEnd Kids’ Tears: Plant a Pinwheel
The Florida Child Abuse hotline received 12,354 reports of child abuse in Circuit 5 during 2013. Over 4,000 children were verified victims of child abuse, neglect, and abandonment in Circuit 5 – Citrus, Hernando, Lake, Marion and Sumter Counties during 2013. Typically, child abuse and domestic violence occur behind closed doors making it a social ill …
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