United Way of Bemidji Area recognized for efforts to prevent child abuse

April is National Child Abuse Prevention month, and FamilyWise Services is recognizing partners across the state who support child and family wellbeing with its Pinwheels for Prevention award.

United Way of Bemidji is being recognized this year for coordinating and hosting the call center for the December 2021 Radiothon to End Child Abuse to allow for safe social distancing and facilitating the Radiothon auction.

“We are honored to be recognized for our important collaborative work in partnership with Hubbard Broadcasting and FamilyWise in preventing child abuse because we know that together we can do than any one of us can do alone,” said Denae Alamano, Executive Director of the United Way of Bemidji Area.

“FamilyWise is dedicated to supporting parents and caregivers in building thriving families and creating fertile environments for healthy childhoods through parent education, wraparound services and early childhood education,” said Ann Gaasch, FamilyWise Services Executive Director.

“This collaborative work with our statewide network has always been essential to family and community health, but over past three years families have experienced new and acute stresses due to the COVID-19 pandemic, uncertainty related to school and employment schedules, and the realities of social and economic injustice. The Pinwheel for Prevention awards honors the work these organizations do for families in our communities.”

The Radiothon to End Child Abuse is an effort across Hubbard Broadcasting radio stations in Minnesota, including Bemidji’s Paul Bunyan Broadcasting. Bemidji’s Radiothon raised more than $36,000 for north-central Minnesotan agencies working to prevent child abuse.


Larissa Donovan is the News Director for the stations of Paul Bunyan Broadcasting and has been, almost without interruption, since Election Day 2016. She covers all the beats in north-central Minnesota, such as local government, crime, education, environment and social issues. She studied communications at Bemidji State University. You can follow along with Larissa's live tweets of meetings and events on Twitter!


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