Gentle Hands

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Katherine Holt
  • 6th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs
MacDill AFB, Fla. --  MacDill's Family Advocacy held the "Gentle Hands Event" Thursday Apr. 30 in front of the Base Exchange here. The "Gentle Hands Event" is the reflection of The National Gentle Hands (These Hands are not made for Hitting) Project.

With the event falling on the last day of April, the focus was Child Abuse. April is Child Abuse Awareness Month and the Family Advocacy office strives to educate Team MacDill members on prevention and the effects of child abuse.

The event also hosted the National Pinwheel (Winds of Change) Project, educating families on building stronger families, and The Clothesline Project, addressing the issue of violence against women, men, children and family members.

"We distributed 400 pinwheels and handed out 120 resource packages to spectators at the event," said Mr. John Navarro, MacDill Family Advocacy outreach manager. "The packages were filled with community resources accessible to building healthy families."

A large clothesline was hung in front of the BX with T-shirts expressing emotion along with other displays.

This year military units and Child Development Centers I and II collaborated to create story boards for the "Gentle Hands Event." The story boards told the wonderful nature of hands and everything that could be done with them, other than hitting. The subjects of the boards included "Hands are for Holding", "Hands are for Healing", "Hands are for Building", and many others.

"We live in an immensely violent society," said Mr. Navarro. "We are reaching out to teach children and adults to rely on their vocals more than their hands"

For further information on these projects and information about building stronger families, please contact Mr. John Navarro at 827-9172, Family Advocacy Program.