Dearing House Child Advocacy Center is celebrating their 20 years of operation since opening their doors in April of 2003. The group has held several activities thus far, including a new coat of paint for their fence, and a “Steppin Out to Stop Child Abuse” walk held on April 14.

The next phase of the 20th anniversary celebrations will be an art show on June 6, highlighting the creativity of children. Children of all ages have painted hundreds of 6 inch by 6 inch canvases and donated them to Dearing House to be sold at the art show on Tuesday, June 6. The art show will be located in the backyard of Dearing House at 311 South 13th, and will begin at 6 pm.

The event is open to the public with cookies and lemonade available. Each art piece sells for $20, in honor of the 20th anniversary, and all proceeds will support the Dearing House vision of helping children heal from abuse.

“Our focus is children,” explains Dearing House Executive Director Maggi Hutchason, “So much of the art has been done by children, but we didn’t limit it by age because we are all children at heart when creating art. The excitement is that we have no idea what kind of creativity you will see displayed that night, but it will all be original and something to cherish.”

For this event, Dearing House has distributed over 200 canvases to schools, families, programs, and churches with the goal of creating images of hope and happiness.

For those wishing to submit their own art work, blank canvas are still available at the Sackett Gallery at 705 E. Hartford or by calling Dearing House at 580-762-5266. Canvases are to be returned to Dearing House by Wednesday, May 31 to prepare for the show and sale on June 6.

The public is invited to view the art and take advantage of the opportunity to support young artists.

“Children have jumped at the idea of helping other children, which is an added benefit,” said Hutchason. “I anticipate that the sale will go quickly as parents and grandparents will want to support their young artists, and we invite all who appreciate original artwork to stop by and take a look, and learn more about how Dearing House supports safe and healthy families.”

Dearing House serves Kay and Noble Counties to help, listen to, and heal the victims of child abuse by coordinating with law enforcement, child welfare experts, medical experts and mental health professions, victim advocates such as teachers, sexual assault nurse examiners, and the District Attorney’s office to respond to crimes against children.

They provide children with the opportunity to share their experiences in a non-threatening and child focused environment with a trained forensic interviewer. The neutrality of these forensic interviews is important as it provides structure for a child to tell their whole story in their own words without influence from law enforcement, parents or Dearing House.