LHS students focused on raising awareness of child abuse issue

For the past three weeks, Courtney Gullage and Abbie Pridham, juniors at Laconia High School, have been working on their project for the Family, Career and Community Leaders (FCCLA) conference, which is through their Early Childhood Education class in the Huot Tech Center. The conference is on April 8 and 9 in at the Attitash Grand Summit Hotel in Bartlett.

The two students are entering the competition called “Focus on Children", which is about raising awareness on a cause that affects children. They chose the topic of child abuse to provide more awareness in the community.

To get their school involved, they organized a dress down in blue day for faculty and students. After receiving donations and selling blue ribbons they were proud to say it was a success, raising $163 for the Child Advocacy Center in Laconia. They’ve also prepared a pinwheel garden to travel around the community to raise awareness. They met with Mayor Mike Seymour on March 31 to discuss the pinwheel garden and the conference and are planning on attending a future school board meeting to present the pinwheel garden and what they’re doing with New Beginnings, the Laconia Public Library and the Family Resource Center’s concert featuring “Teachable Moments” displays and the “Fun with Steve and Marty” concert on April 10 — and possibly leaving the garden on display at City Hall. They plan to sell the pinwheels after they are displayed around the community, with all money raised donated to the Child Advocacy Center.