Open Arms Shelter, the Lonoke group home for a couple of dozen neglected and abused Arkansas youths, held its third Child Abuse Awareness and Prevention Banquet on April 2 in the cafeteria of the Cabot Freshman Academy.
Dinner was served by the high school ROTC, and first lady Susan Hutchinson gave the keynote speech.
The dinner was barbecued pork prepared and overseen once again by John C. Thompson and Fred Campbell, and each guest received a lapel pin in recognition of National Child Abuse Awareness Month.
Preventing child abuse and strengthening child advocacy is Hutchinson's chief campaign in her new position as Arkansas' first lady. She recalled in vivid and animated detail the Dr. Seuss book Horton Hears a Who! and likened the littlest Who, who finally catches the attention of Horton the elephant, to a child's voice crying out for help and justice.
"I wish we never had to have a dedicated Child Abuse Awareness and Prevention month," she said, but wishing doesn't make abuse go away, so she entreated everyone to make an effort toward pulling back the curtain on cruelty toward children, toward hearing the tiniest voices in our society.
For almost 30 years Open Arms Shelter has provided emergency safe housing for area children who are neglected or have been abused, and unlike many other shelters, Open Arms will accept babies, teenage mothers and their children, and large sibling groups.
The shelter also took time to salute the cadets of Cabot High ROTC for volunteering to serve at the banquet. Dorothy Jackson was the Arkansas Department of Human Services Partner of the Year, and in an emotional acceptance, Matty Cooksey, a weekend supervisor at the shelter, was lauded for her 20 years of work and the number of youths whose lives she has clearly touched.
Tickets were $25, and the night raised just under $20,000 for the shelter.
-- Photos and story by Bobby Ampezzan
High Profile on 04/12/2015