A garden was planted at the corner of Main and Gladden streets Thursday. It isn’t your average garden. It’s a whirling sea of blue and silver pinwheels, planted to raise awareness of child abuse.

Government officials and child welfare advocates teamed up with local children to plant the garden and say a few words about the need to stay vigilant when it comes to the abuse and neglect of local children.

“We do this to bring awareness to the issue — children are abused every day,” Lisa Woolard, executive director of Beaufort/Hyde Partnership for Children, told the assembled crowd. “We just want people to remember that children are abused and neglected; we want people to see the pinwheels shining in the sun.”

The planting of pinwheel gardens across the country is the work of Prevent Child Abuse America’s Pinwheels for Prevention program, as well as a way to kick off April and National Child Abuse Prevention month.  The pinwheels are said to represent “childlike notions and stands for the chance at the healthy, happy and full lives all children deserve,” according to the Pinwheels for Prevention website.

Washington Mayor Mac Hodges and Beaufort County Commissioner Al Klemm addressed those gathered for the ceremony. Klemm read a proclamation that dedicated the day to “all the abused children in Beaufort County and throughout North Carolina.”

From July of 2012 to June of 2013, North Carolina officials investigated the reported abuse and neglect of 128,188 children — 688 of them in Beaufort County. For Beaufort County, that number represents a steady decline in reports since 2007’s high of 813. Even so, officials and child welfare advocates said the work is ongoing.

“For years, the voice of the abused was silent,” said Assistant District Attorney Tom Anglim, who added that great strides have been made to eradicate abuse through the partnership of law enforcement, Department of Social Services, Child Protective Services and the prosecutor’s office.

“But there is still work to be done,” Anglim said.

Anglim made a point of thanking all the representatives from Beaufort County services in attendance, saying it’s their hard work that makes a difference.

Renee Boyd, exceptional children’s coordinator for Beaufort County Schools, said even though reported cases of child abuse and neglect are numerous, there is hope in that they are reported at all.

“The fact that someone cared enough to report it means a lot to me as a citizen of this county,” Boyd said.

While the pinwheel garden ceremony happened at the corner of Main and Gladden, that location is by no means the only place find pinwheel gardens through April. Woolard has joined forces with licensed child and day cares, Beaufort County schools and community agencies and given them the tools to build their own — cases and cases of pinwheels, she said.