Music blaring throughout the courtyard, the rhythmic clapping of hands to the beat, and the occasional chorus of cheers are all familiar sounds to anyone who was on campus during lunch on Friday, April 21. April is Child Abuse Awareness Month and students were encouraged to wear blue that day to show their support.

History teacher Alejandro Garcia leads “Blue Out Bowie,” a movement that promotes Child Abuse Awareness through the month of April and invites students and teachers to donate supplies to the Austin Center for Child Protection.

“Since my PALS class focuses on working with kids we always want to set aside a day to kind of remember victims of child abuse,” Garcia said. “It’s just a day of remembrance and honoring people who have sometimes fallen victim to the actions of people older than them.”

The Bowie PALS were in charge of promoting the drive and handing out cookies to those who wore blue on that Friday. Junior Julian Haddad was at both lunches to hand out treats.

“It was a big mass of kids at the start of each lunch, that’s when the energy was the highest and the pit in the courtyard was nearly full,” Haddad said. “All the PALS were just moving to the music and handing out cookies as best we could.”

The donated supplies are collected in Garcia’s room. At the end of the month, Garcia and several students load up trucks with the donations and they are carried to the Austin Center for Child Protection.

“I don’t offer any extra credit for bringing any supplies or stuff like that because in my mind, to give is to give out of your heart,” Garcia said.  “I’m not going to give you something to force you to give. That’s not the intention of the whole day or meaning of the event.”

The drive began in 2013, when Garcia, inspired by the No Place for Hate parade, decided he wanted to have a day to honor the victims of child abuse. Since then, it has grown exponentially. Last year, the large number of donations required two trucks in order to transport to the center.

“It kept getting bigger and bigger and more teachers started to buy into it,” Garcia said. “So it started off of a little idea that has now become, five years later, a really, really big and powerful fundraising drive for a very noble organization.”

One way students were encouraged to show their support was through a contact at the Austin Center for Child Protection. Child Development teacher Jean Frazier brought in a representative of the center to talk to her students and raise awareness.

“I realized that was something that I really wanted to share with my students so they agreed to come and speak to my classes and that was about three years ago,” Frazier said. “We have been working with them since.”

The Austin Center for Child Protection is based in Travis County, which means that everything donated stays in the Austin area.

“We’re helping our neighbors and there are so many that are in need that we have no clue,” Frazier said. “We all tend to hide behind a facade sometimes and it could be someone sitting right next to you in class and you’d never know.”

With help coming from all sides of the Bowie community, students and teachers continue to make a difference in raising Child Abuse Awareness.

“To see people, not only my own current students, but former students and kids in other classes bringing stuff in, I know it’s because they wanted to give,” Garcia said. “It’s because they heard the announcements and saw the signs and were excited about what that meant to be able to participate in a fund raiser like this.”