Fort Polk, Leesville, Local Municipalities Sign Joint Proclamation Designating April as Child Abuse Awareness Month and Month of the Military Child

LEESVILLE, La.--Mayors or their representatives of New Llano, Hornbeck, Rosepine, DeRidder and Anacoco joined Gen. Timothy McGuire, commanding general of Fort Polk and the Joint Readiness Training Center and Leesville Mayor Rick Allen at Leesville City Hall to sign a joint proclamation designating April as Child Abuse Awareness Month and the Month of the Military Child in their respective municipalities.

The annual joint proclamation is organized by Army Community Services. This year's theme is Preventing Child Abuse is Everyone's Business.

"As a soldier who has devoted 32 years to defending the country...there's no one we should be loving more than our children," said Gen. McGuire. "There is no place within Fort Polk or the greater Fort Polk community here in Central Louisiana or in our nation or the world for that matter, to tolerate child abuse. And so I am pleased that we are taking time for the mayors and the mayors reps here that the community here is acknowledging the problem exists and that we're going to take actions to ensure we can eliminate it.

"I'd also like to highlight that April is the Month of the Military Child, and as a proud father of four, who have gone through multiple moves....My kids have sacrificed a lot, and every military child has sacrificed a lot to let their military parent serve. I do believe the unsung heroes of this war on terror have been our military spouses and our military children. I'm grateful that we've taken the month of April to highlight the sacrifices that they do."

"We want to do everything we can in Leesville and in Vernon Parish to be a team player and help in any way we can," said Leesville Mayor Rick Allen. "Our Police Department and Fire Department reach out to our young people daily because we want their experience with our law enforcement to be a positive one....So that is our goal with the city, to reach out to our young people and make sure they know if they need to talk they can talk to us. We need to be accessible to our young people."

To view or use photos from the event, please visit the City of Leesville on Facebook.

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