February 16, 2011, Maple Ridge/Tri Cities – The Ridge Meadows Community Action Team (RMCAT) and the Tri- Cities Community Action Team (Tri-CAT) are hosting a free public event to raise awareness on the issue of sexual exploitation of children and youth in our communities.  The evening will begin with a Candle Light Walk around Memorial Peace Park (11900 224^th Street, Maple Ridge) followed by a safety presentation, “Parenting in a Cyber Age”  at the Greg Moore Youth Centre (11925 Haney Place, Maple Ridge).  All activities will take place on Wednesday, March 9th from 6:00pm – 9:30pm.

The event is being held in recognition of the annual Stopping the Sexual Exploitation of Children and Youth Awareness Week, March 7^th -13^th, 2011. This is the 13^th consecutive year that the Province of BC has officially designated support for this week, to emphasize the importance of supporting communities to develop prevention, education, enforcement and intervention strategies to address the sexual exploitation of children and youth.

The Candle Light Walk will commence at 6:15 pm in Memorial Peace Park and will conclude with a brief presentation on the importance of this issue in our community. Attendees will then be asked to proceed to the Greg Moore Youth Centre where the presentation “Parenting in a Cyber Age” will begin at 7:00pm. The event will include guest speaker, Merlyn Horton from Safe Online Outreach Society, who will provide expertise and information on the subject, and there will also be opportunities to network and ask questions.

As part of the local activities for this event, the RMCAT & Tri-CAT will be distributing fuchsia colored ribbons. The colour fuchsia represents a combination of the colour red, for the red light districts, and purple, the provincial colour for violence prevention.

Admission to the event is free and all community members are welcomed and encouraged to attend. There will also be refreshments and door prizes. For more information on this event, or the RMCAT or Tri-CAT please contact Charlotte Rechkemmer (RMCAT) at crechkemmer@pcrs.ca or Meghan Toal (Tri-CAT) at mtoal@childrenofthestreet.com .

-30-