Purple Ribbons for Preventing Child Abuse

By Kenneth Bullock

A local college student has brought a campaign to her school promoting prevention of child abuse.

 Laurie Harrison, a student enrolled in the St. Clair College’s public relations program, has brought the purple ribbon campaign to the St. Clair College MediaPlex and wears the purple ribbon to bring people’s attention to the various forms of child abuse.

“Child abuse is something all people should be aware of,” said Harrison.

In 2009 there were 40,825 children less than 18 years old physically assaulted, according to Statistics Canada. By using social networking Harrison created the campaign on Twitter and convinced Tim Hortons to give a discount on donuts and coffee to draw the attention of fellow students. She also garnered support from Wendy’s restaurant. Students who bring in their media pass and purple ribbon on Oct. 11 get a free small frosty with a salad entree or combo. Lori Newton, Harrison’s public relations teacher said the campaign is based on a class assignment.

“The object of this assignment was to identify a local public relations campaign and look at it for what they do, what they did for the campaign, who is putting on the campaign, whether it fits with the mission of the organizing campaign, what the collateral materials were, and whether or not they thought it was effective,” said Newton.

Newton said her students are taught to be proficient at using Twitter. She encourages other students to follow Harrison’s example.

“I think a student who wants to succeed in the industry will go above and beyond to really embrace the purpose of the assignment and to do the very best that they can because that’s really giving them real world opportunities,” she said.

Harrison collected donations as part of her campaign, and raised over $50.