The Story of the Blue Ribbon

The Blue Ribbon Child Abuse Prevention Campaign had its early beginnings following the death of a very young child. In 1989, a Virginia grandmother received the devastating news that her beloved grandson had died of injuries inflicted by his parents. In an expression of her grief and outrage, this grandmother did something that has given us a symbol, around which we rally for the cause of child abuse prevention. She tied a blue ribbon to the antenna of her van as a way to remember “the bruised and battered body of her grandson” and to alert her community to the tragedy of child abuse.

Child Abuse Statistics

• 3,000,000 cases of child abuse and neglect were reported in the United States last year, and 2,000 children died as a result of that abuse.
• There were over 40,000 reported cases of child abuse in Orange County in 2008.
• Every 9 seconds, a child is reported beaten, raped, verbally assaulted, 
  or severely neglected.
• More children (age four and younger) die from child abuse and neglect than any other single, leading cause of death for infants and young children. 

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