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Child abuse can take many forms, including watching an abusive relationship between parents, attendees at the Child Abuse Prevention Council Annual Luncheon were told Monday.
Guest speaker Amy Wilms, of Miami University in Ohio, recounted the story of her increasingly abusive marriage that ended with her ex-husband killing their daughter and himself.
The fact that her children saw everything that was going on between their parents, she said, was child abuse.
"They saw Daddy try to strangle me," she said.
At the time, she didn't know about services that were available to help families in these situations, she said.
"There's got to be services out there to help these children," Wilms said. "There are kids out there that are suffering, that are watching the same thing.
"All I ask you is to think," she said. "Connect the dots and help these kids."
The luncheon was opened by Delores Hearn, a member of the Child Abuse Prevention Council, who presented a special award to Nancy and Gus Sideris, of Mosaique Restaurant, where the luncheon is held each year.
A second award went to Jean Northenor, the person, Hearn said, "who has become a spokesman for the organization."
Hearn also said the luncheons began in 1996 as a way of making the public more aware of child abuse in Kosciusko County.
A candlelight vigil will be held at 5 p.m. Friday on the south lawn of the county courthouse to commemorate the 57 children who died in 2004 in Indiana as a results of child abuse and neglect.
Members of the Child Abuse Prevention Council are: Amy Drake, Mary Jo Stapleton, Ann Popenfoose, Stephanie Olson, Cindi Knepper, Joseph Adams, Delores Hearn, Lisa Eckert, Chris Parker, Stephen Swinehart and Bobbi Burhart.
