Kross Kountry 4 Kids Raising Child Abuse Awareness

It’s a mission to raise awareness, one motorcycle ride at a time with a local man taking it into his own hands to encourage people to come together and keep children safe.

April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are more than three million reports of child abuse each year — nearly 6 every minute.

Those numbers give Mark Lunsford motivation to help prevent children from becoming victims.

In 2005, he lost his daughter, Jessica, when a sexual predator kidnapped, raped, and murdered the 9-year-old in Florida. Her case inspired “Jessie’s Law” to pass in 44 states, including California, but Lunsford continues to fight, in hopes he can prevent this from happening to other families.

“We’re parents who lost our children. We’re fathers. You thought messing with mothers was bad, mess with fathers,” Lunsford told CBSLocal2.

Lunsford is promoting a cross country motorcycle ride this week from Sacramento to Washington, D.C., called Kross Kountry 4 Kids. He stopped in Palm Springs Monday where a number of other bikers joined in.

“And what happens is when you use these bikes, people are like what are these bikes? Let’s see what they’re doing, and that’s how it all gets started,” Lunsford said.

Pops Carter from Desert Hot Springs said there’s a history of child abuse in his family. He said the bike ride had personal meaning to him.

“The major thing is most kids won’t report (abuse) out front because they are either threatened or afraid or they’re ashamed,” Carter added.

Gregg Rall is president of the Desert Riders Association and Board President of Christopher’s Clubhouse in Palm Springs, an organization dedicated to preventing child abuse. He also joined the ride thinking about his own children.

“I have two small boys and you know, I want to do everything I can to make sure it doesn’t happen to them,” Rall said.

The Kross Kountry 4 Kids bike ride will continue onto Arizona, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Virginia, and its final destination Washington, D.C. on April 7th.

For more information on the bike ride, head to www.armyofangels.biz/kross-kountry-4-kids.

Also, for more resources to help parents and communities understand and meet children’s needs and protect them from harm, go to www.childabuseprevention.org.