April 2023 Newsletter

The Library will be closed on Friday, April 7th for a Spring Holiday.

Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM) is to raise public awareness and educate communities on how to prevent sexual violence. Each year crisis centers, government agencies, businesses, campuses, and individuals highlight violence as a public health, human rights, and social justice issue and reinforce the need for prevention. As early as 1976, Take Back the Night marches rallied women in protest against the violence and fear they encountered walking at night. Over time these events coordinated into a movement across the US and Europe. In April 2001, the National Sexual Violence Resource Center coordinated the first formally recognized SAAM campaign and still facilitates it today.

World Autism Awareness Day on April 2nd encourages the UN to raise awareness about autistic individuals throughout the world. The original resolution had 4 main components: "the establishment of the second day of April as World Autism Awareness Day; invitation to UN Member States to create initiatives to raise public awareness of autism; encourages Member States to raise awareness of autism on all levels in society; asks the UN Secretary-General to deliver this message to member states and all other UN organizations."

James Parkinson was a surgeon, apothecary, geologist, paleontologist, and activist. He's best known for being the first to describe "paralysis agitans," later renamed Parkinson's disease. Parkinson was interested in improving the general health and well-being of the population and was a crusader for legal protection for the mentally ill, their doctors, and their families. In 1807, Parkinson and other gentlemen held the first meeting of the Geological Society of London. He died in December 1824, after a stroke that interfered with his speech. In addition to the disease, Parkinson is commemorated in the names of several fossils. World Parkinson's Day is held annually on his birthday, April 11th.

(via Wikipedia)

Click here to Read More Information About Fort Walton Beach Library Newsletter - April 2023