GAIL WHITE Making a pitch for ending child abuse

Mahoning County Children Services served 6,427 children in 2000.
* 411 of those children were referred to the agency for having suffered physical abuse.
* 205 experienced sexual abuse.
* 539 children were served by MCCS due to neglect.
"It breaks my heart," says Bill May, vice president and managing director of IBC Marketing in Liberty. While the business keeps him busy during the day, after hours he devotes much of his free time to helping prevent child abuse and neglect.
I have found that some of my best interviews have been with people who did not want to be interviewed. Bill was one of these modest individuals, but the rejection I endured was worth the story that I heard.
For the past 12 years, Bill has volunteered countless hours to Mahoning County Children Services, providing public relations and advertising advice.
Inspiration: "I remember clearly how it began," Bill recalls. In 1987, he got a call from Children Services asking him if he would be interested in doing a radio spot and newspaper ad for an upcoming levy renewal.
"My daughter, Alexandra, was in my office sitting on my lap," he remembers. "I had a creative inspiration to write the spot right then."
After that, he was hooked.
For several years, Bill worked with the Children Services staff creating ads and commercials as levies needed renewal. Slowly, he became more involved.
"When I got closer to what Children Services did, seeing the cases, hearing of abused children, it broke my heart," he confesses. "Children are ultimately precious. No kid should have to grow up scared and abused. They don't have the capabilities to deal with life's ugliness."
His desire had turned to passion.
Annual TV show: Six years ago, Bill came up with the idea of creating a television show to launch Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Month. "It has the look of a telethon," Bill explains. "But we are not fund raising. We are creating awareness."
Every year, Bill and a delegation of Children Services workers spend countless hours brainstorming, scripting, organizing, shooting and editing a television show to promote prevention of abuse and neglect.
"It's a 30-minute show," says Denise Stewart, executive director of Children Services. "But it takes hours and hours to create." She adds, "Bill has been a godsend to us."
Lynn Slaina, community education specialist with MCCS, echoes Denise's sentiments. "We wouldn't be able to do the show without him," she confesses. "We are extremely grateful."
Many times, Children Services has offered to pay Bill for his hours of work. He has turned them down flat. "Everybody should give back a little bit, somehow, someway," he says. "This is what I do."
Downplays efforts: Last year, Bill received the Community Partner Award, a statewide award given to outstanding volunteers. "They give me this award," he shakes his head. "What I do is nothing. The foster parents and adoptive parents, they are amazing. These people take in kids with birth defects and crack-addicted babies. They have so much love to give -- It blows me away. What they do is no comparison to what little I do," he contends.
Bill has come up with a new way to add to the "little" that he does for abused and neglected children.
Fund-raising photos: Photography has been another passion that he enjoys. He has photographed humpback whales in the Bay of Fundy, fireworks bursting on the Fourth of July, sunsets on Presque Isle.
He has placed the beautiful photographs online where they can be purchased. All the proceeds go to support programs for the prevention and treatment of child abuse and neglect.
"I believe that all children are ultimately precious and should have the opportunity to grow up free from unnecessary pain, fear and lack of care," he writes on the Web site. "It is adults that cause this unnecessary abuse and, as adults, we have the power to prevent it."
XPhotos are available at www.billmayphoto.com.