Photo by Tony Vasquez
The CAP Adult Prom court poses for a photo at The Commons Saturday.
The king and queen candidates helped raise a royal and record amount for the Ninth Annual Child Abuse Prevention Adult Prom Saturday, according to organizers. The event theme was “Disco.”
Monetary votes for those candidates generated $89,000 — also a record — of slightly more than $100,000 raised, said Raina Jones, child abuse prevention coordinator for the nonprofit Family Service Inc. that organizes the event to fight child abuse.
Jones mentioned that those records were established even with an attendance limited to 400 people because of lingering concerns linked to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the past, attendance had swelled to as high as 575 people.
“We had an amazing prom court that worked their behinds off and got so many donations,” Jones said.
She added that the overall total says plenty about Bartholomew County residents.
“Honestly, I think it says that our community really cares,” she said. “We represent the prevention side of child abuse, so I think one thing that we do is give everyone hope. People realize that this is something that they can learn about, and can work to prevent if we all decide to work together and raise more awareness.”
Family service also provides a range of mental health help such as counseling to residents, and Jones acknowledged that plenty of people struggling with issues such as COVID-related job loss cannot afford to pay for the help they get. So future donations can be made for those clients.
“It’s been kind of a wild ride here since COVID hit,” she said, “partly because I believe that we have brought more public awareness to mental health, and that has shown there still are a lot more struggling in our community.”
