‘Save Our Children’ movement coming to Waynesburg
Call it a protest, a demonstration, a movement. Samantha Arrington doesn’t care about labels.
All she wants Greene County residents to know is that many people, including herself, will be appearing on the Greene courthouse steps in Waynesburg from 3 to 6 p.m. Sunday to raise awareness about child sex trafficking and pedophilia.
She encourages the public to join them as well.
Arrington said the event, which is part of the “Save Our Children” initiative that is sweeping the nation, will be a peaceful opportunity for people to hold signs on the courthouse steps and help spread the message that child trafficking and pedophilia are serious issues across the globe that urgently need to be addressed at higher levels.
Arrington, a Masontown resident and advocate of the “Save Our Children” movement, said she is pleased to see positive feedback from local residents about the upcoming event.
“We’ve had over a hundred people from this area expressing interest in the event on Facebook alone, and that number is climbing,” she said. “We want people to know that we are not marching the streets, we’re not confrontational or political. We are simply, peacefully, trying to spread the powerful message that child trafficking and pedophilia are horribly wrong, is a serious problem that won’t go away and is getting worse every day.
“Without a doubt, awareness and educating about the issue is a huge step toward changing the lives of those suffering in child trafficking, and that’s what the event on Sept. 6 will be all about,” she added.
Arrington said the local Save Our Children initiative is also trying to initiate fundraising projects to raise funds for nonprofit organizations such as Operation Underground Railroad, a program founded in 2013 to help rescue children from sex trafficking.
“It feels like the nation is starting to wake up about this despicable sickness,” she said. “In 2019, more than 800,000 children went missing in America. In Pennsylvania alone, there are more than 18,000 registered child predators. Everyone needs to understand that kidnapping, trafficking and assaulting children are happening every day, everywhere, even here.”