Chris Arsenault of the Greenfield Department of Public Works and Greenfield Police Chief Robert Haigh Jr. raise the flag for Child Abuse Prevention Month on the Greenfield Common in 2021. The one silhouetted child represents the one in six children who experience domestic violence. This year’s Greenfield ceremony will be held Friday, April 1, at 12:15 p.m.
Chris Arsenault of the Greenfield Department of Public Works and Greenfield Police Chief Robert Haigh Jr. raise the flag for Child Abuse Prevention Month on the Greenfield Common in 2021. The one silhouetted child represents the one in six children who experience domestic violence. This year’s Greenfield ceremony will be held Friday, April 1, at 12:15 p.m. Credit: STAFF FILE PHOTO/PAUL FRANZ

The Children’s Advocacy Center of Franklin County and North Quabbin will host flag raising ceremonies in Athol and Greenfield on Friday to recognize the start of Child Abuse Awareness Month.

The first ceremony will take place at the Athol Public Library at 10:30 a.m., followed by a ceremony in Greenfield on the common at 12:15 p.m.

In Greenfield, Mayor Roxann Wedegartner will read a proclamation and Police Chief Robert Haigh Jr. will raise the flag, according to Children’s Advocacy Center Executive Director Irene Woods. Northwestern District Attorney David Sullivan will speak, as will a member of the Mayor’s Task Force Against Domestic Violence. At the similar ceremony in Athol, state Rep. Susannah Whipps, I-Athol, is expected to say a few words.

This year, the ceremony in Greenfield will once again include a performance by students from the Ja’Duke Center for the Performing Arts.

“(The ceremony) is a way to bring awareness to the community, to remind everyone to be cognizant of children and do what they can to keep kids safe,” Woods said. “It’s a way for the CAC to thank the police, child protection workers and the DA staff who complete the investigations of kids in a non-traumatic way.”

In 2021, the Child Advocacy Center was able to help 135 children, she said.

“The CAC has started to address mental health needs of children,” she added. “We’ve been able to hire a mental health clinician and that came with the support of the mayor, who gave us some of the ARPA money she received.”

The mental health clinician was hired with the help of $25,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds, she said.

Woods said the yearly tradition of placing pinwheels — one for every child the nonprofit has served — on the front lawn of the center on Wisdom Way continues.

“It’s definitely worth coming by,” she said of the display. “We’re on a hill, and it’s really kind of impressive.”

For the first year, the nonprofit also plans to raise the flag in the center of Conway on April 8, at 1 p.m.

Reporter Mary Byrne can be reached at mbyrne@recorder.com or 413-930-4429. Twitter: @MaryEByrne