By Kari Lucin, staff writer

April is Child Abuse Prevention Month, and Freeborn County will again have a child abuse prevention council this year after a four-year hiatus.

The new council, called Help Us Grow Safely or HUGS, has already met once.

&8220;This community is really important to me, so I just really felt we needed to have a child abuse prevention council in place in Freeborn County to do things like getting awareness out there,&8221; said Barb Sorum of Prevent Child Abuse Minnesota, who helped organize HUGS.

Alice Englin of the Freeborn County Family Services Collaborative, Marilynn Borland of Senior Resources, Heather Steinkamp, program coordinator of the crisis nursery, and Vicky Helland of SEMCAC are the council members so far, along with Sorum herself.

&8220;We have re-established it, but we’re really in the beginning stages of organization,&8221; Sorum said.

In 2002, funding cuts, member burnout, and lack of community interest ended the Freeborn County council, then called Healthy Families Healthy You. It was previously named Families Are Special Too.

&8220;We work together to educate families, enhance their lives as parents and community members and children’s lives by ensuring that they’re raised in a safe environment and in a safe community,&8221; said Steinkamp.

The fledgling council’s first project is providing seed packets to all kindergartners and first-graders in the county. Planting the seeds is a project that parents can do with their children, and since the seeds were donated by the Albert Lea Seedhouse, the cost of the project will be minimal.

HUGS is seeking funding sources, such as the Children’s Trust Fund, which funds individual county child abuse prevention councils.

Anyone interested in helping put together seed packets, or in

joining HUGS, should call Barb Sorum at 377-7665. People don’t have to belong to an agency or organization to be a part of HUGS; anyone who wants to make a difference in children’s lives is invited to join.