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The rain didn’t relent, but it did nothing to deter the determined who participated in this year’s Rally to End Child Abuse!

Kentucky First Lady Glenna Bevin joined Family & Children’s Place President and CEO Pam Darnall and other friends and supporters to call people to commit to helping end child abuse and neglect, and to kick off April as Child Abuse Prevention Month.

Kosair Charities and the Face It Movement co-sponsored the annual rally, which precedes by about two weeks the agency’s Champions for Children fundraising breakfast at the Mellwood Arts Center.

Joining Darnell to speak were state Sen. Julie Raque Adams; Mayor Greg Fischer; Director of the city’s Office for Safe and Healthy Neighborhoods Rashaad Abdur-Rahman, Louisville Police Chief Steve Conrad, Kosair Charities President Keith Inman, and Kentucky Youth Advocates Executive Director Terry Brooks.

The rally also served to celebrate the 135 years the agency and its predecessors have been serving children and families in Louisville and Southern Indiana. Inter3estingly, the rally took place beneath the Big Four Bridge, which is just five years younger than the agency, at 130 years.

Both Family & Children’s Place and the Big Four Bridge continue to serve the community in important and significant ways.

“This rally is about celebrating the lives we have touched and saved, and committing to current and future generations of children to give them the chance to grow up healthy, happy, and most of all, safe,” said Darnall.

Thanks to our speakers, and our many partners, supporters and friends who participated in spite of the rain, including Face It, Bikers Against Child Abuse, ECHO, Volunteers of America, Uspiritus, Home of the Innocents, CASA, Maryhurst, Sunrise Children’s Services, Boys and Girls Clubs, Peace Education Program, and others.