12-04-2025
Hundreds of pinwheels planted in Las Vegas for child abuse prevention month
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — April is National Child Abuse Prevention month, and Las Vegas's Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) program held its annual pinwheel event at Family Court on North Pecos Road.
Volunteers, court staff, judges, and child welfare partners planted hundreds of pinwheels to shed light on the reality of how many children in the area are affected.
'In Clark County, we have over 3,500 kids in the foster system,' CASA volunteer Kelly Hernandez said. 'So there's a need for everybody to be aware of them and for us to make sure that they have safe homes.'
CASA volunteers are court-appointed special advocates who speak on behalf of children in the foster care system.
'The more we can promote letting everyone know about the issues of child abuse and how it affects children growing up, we can get it implanted in the system so that we can stop the cycle ourselves,' Keith Fiandra, who has been volunteering with CASA for five years now, said.
Judge Margaret Pickard with Judicial District Court 8 told 8 New Now that issues like child abuse are congruent to other problems like mental health, domestic violence, and drugs.
'We have an overwhelming problem with meth and fentanyl in our community, and as a result we have a lot of parents coming in with drug issues,' the judge said.
She continued, 'Of our six judges, we have, every six weeks, we each spend two weeks full-time on 24-hour warrant duty, because it's so common in our community that kiddos are experiencing abuse or neglect.'
CASA is always looking for volunteers, and applications are available on their website. There is a minimum two year commitment required. After being accepted into the program, there is a five-week training period.
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