Pinwheel gardens provide simple, powerful reminder of responsibility to protect children

In its ongoing commitment to the ministry of protecting children from abuse, the Archdiocese of Newark parishes and schools have been observing Child Abuse Prevention Month throughout April by erecting pinwheel gardens around Catholic school campuses across the Archdiocese. 

Each April, the Office for Child and Youth Protection (OCYP) under the Department for the Protection of the Faithful, and the Archdiocesan Office of Schools sponsor a local Pinwheels for Prevention® campaign in observance of National Child Abuse Prevention Month.  

At Saint Thomas the Apostle School in Bloomfield, some 200 students in 1st through 8th grade participated in a pinwheel garden “planting ceremony” during the first week of April. Students in every grade level created pinwheels, then processed outside to plant them in the front yard of the school ground.  

“In our ongoing collaboration with the Office of Protection of the Faithful, the Schools Office encourages our schools to participate in the Pinwheels for Prevention campaign,” said Barbara Dolan, Superintendent of Catholic Schools. “Pinwheels are a symbol of the innocence and joy we associate with childhood. The Pinwheels for Prevention campaign provides a very simple but powerful reminder of the responsibility we all have to protect children from harm and to do all we can to promote healthy, happy childhoods.” 

The national Pinwheels for Prevention® campaign, introduced in 2008 by Prevent Child Abuse America, presents a creative opportunity for individuals and organizations to act in spreading awareness for child abuse prevention.  

The pinwheels, according to Prevent Child Abuse America, represent childlike whimsy and lightheartedness and promote a vision for a world where all children grow up happy, healthy, and prepared to succeed in supportive families and communities.  

The Archdiocese of Newark’s Office for Protection of the Faithful first embraced the Pinwheels for Prevention campaign in 2021 in addition to the Protecting God’s Children education program — Virtus ® Empowering God’s Children —that is taught throughout the Archdiocese, according to Gina Criscuolo, Coordinator for the Office of Accompaniment. 

Starting in 2022, the Office for the Protection of the Faithful began providing archdiocesan schools and parishes with a Child Abuse Prevention Month Resource Packet that includes, among other resources, pinwheel coloring pages, an activity guide, and instructions for creating pinwheel gardens.  

"The pinwheels celebrate the joy and innocence of childhood that each child should experience,” Criscuolo said. “Participating and displaying the pinwheels demonstrates an outward commitment to prevention.” 

She went on to say, "The goal we have as a team is to continue to provide education to all of the adults working and serving the children and youth throughout the archdiocese, and to always remember information and education are the best ways to safeguard our most precious gift from God – our children.” 

Although many of the gardens are planted in patches of grass, planters, and garden beds, they can also be planted indoors by posting colored pictures in offices and school windows. 

Students at Corpus Christi School in Hasbrouck Heights created their display indoors by hanging paper pinwheel crafts on the cafeteria walls. 

Pinwheels for Prevention® activities are accompanied by age-appropriate discussions with students about child abuse. Parents are notified by letter in the days before introducing the Pinwheels for Prevention activities and can opt their child out of the activities if they wish. 

Saint Thomas the Apostle School principal Michael Petrillo said that the Pinwheels for Prevention activities provided an opportunity for teachers and students to engage in important, age-appropriate discussions about child abuse and abuse prevention.  

"We feel it is important to educate students about these situations,” he said. “As with everything we do here, we are trying to talk to students about all kinds of different experiences and situations,” Petrillo said.