Butler Child Advocacy Center Grand Opening

I've been spending a lot of time magnifying my calling as Communication Director lately. I've built some new relationships and made some new friends through this and the other night I was able to meet some of these friends in person, which is no small miracle in this age of the pandemic!

I've been following the progress of a small group of people who pushed to have a child advocacy center built some years ago and now succeeded in renovating a larger building where more children could receive help after abuse.

The building and center was the vision of Denna Hays, and these are many members of our stake who contributed their time (100's of hours-worth) and talents to create this safe and welcoming place for these kids.

So after interacting with them online and being in complete aw of their accomplishment I got to attend the "grand opening".  They really barely know who I am but I felt so lucky to attend and I really wanted to attend to show support for their amazing work a d the work that they will do in this place. 

Here are some photos to show you some of the amazing artwork created to make the place really welcome to all who come there for services.

First here is Denna Hays, the director and person without whom this place would not exist.

Here is Jennifer Spryn, a member of our church who donated 300+ hours of her time to create this amazing life-sized tree full of animals who serve to distract the children during exams a d help set them at ease. 

Each animal was hand-made by Jennifer out of sculpy clay. And the painting of the tree is amazing too!

There is also a long hallway that was transformed by two local painters into an undersea mural. It's like walking through the ocean and it is spectacular and calming.

I am so impressed and inspired by what they have done to see to the needs of the most vulnera7 in our society and I know Heavenly Father is pleased too.

Missionaries from the area have volunteered there weekly for months and members from three different units donated their time for help with multiple projects.

I have experienced some hard things in my calling, but this was definitely an upside of my calling. What a privilege it was just to stand next to these angels on earth even for just one night.