SANFORD - Pinwheels spin in the breeze on Central Carolina Community College's Lee County Campus. According to the college's Early Childhood Education students, they represent the beauty and joy of childhood innocence and the hope for a bright future for all children.

April is national Child Abuse Prevention Month and, to bring awareness to this, the ECE students at the college set up the pinwheel display across Kelly Drive from the campus' main entrance. It will be on view through May 5.

Every year more than three million reports of child abuse are made in the United States, involving more than 6 million children. More than 10 children die every day as a result of child abuse and approximately 70 percent of those are under the age of four. In North Carolina, between July 2012 and Jun 2013, abuse and neglect reports were investigated involving almost 129,000 children, according to research by the Jordan Institute for Families at UNC-Chapel Hill.

The Childhood Development and Child Guidance classes will also hold a bake sale at the campus from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Tuesday, April 22 to raise funds to donate to Prevent Child Abuse North Carolina (PCANC). All items will be $1. They will also distribute literature and information about child abuse prevention and encourage donations to PCANC through the CCCC Foundation.

PCANC accepts donations and distributes the money to organizations that support the development of safe stable, nurturing relationships for children in their families and communities to prevent child abuse and neglect.

The Early Childhood Education students' project has been planned, organized and carried out by students Robyn Brafford, Benjamin Brooks Lauren Deal, Casey Gillis, Tracey Latta, Alicia Lopez, Emily Molina, Lauren O'Neal, Rebecca Reyes, Jessica Smith, Kristen Tully, Katie Wilson, and Kylei Woodall.

"It's important to make parents aware of the vast resources for parenting skills," said student Tracy Latta, of Bunnlevel. "Child Abuse Prevention Month encourages people to get involved and help families with children with their needs or childcare because kids deserve that. It takes a village to raise a child."

For more information about ECE programs at the college or the students' project, contact David Leperi at dlepe151@cccc.edu. All donations will be processed through the CCCC Foundation, foundation@cccc.edu, and dispensed to PCANC. For more information about PCANC, visit its website, www.preventchildabusenc.org.