The Bristol County District Attorney’s Office is proud to announce plans for the first annual “Hear My Voice” event to commemorate National Child Abuse Prevention Month.

The District Attorney’s Office has joined with partners from across the county to hold this family-friendly event.

The “Hear My Voice” event will take place on Saturday, April 5 at the Buttonwood Park and Zoo in New Bedford. Officials from the zoo have graciously offered to eliminate its standard entrance fee between the hours of 1 p.m. and 4 p.m.

The event will include entertainment, food, fingerprinting for children, Internet safety sessions, carnival games, a car seat safety check and much more. All entertainment, food and events will be free to the public.

Several area social service agencies will also be on hand to educate parents about preventing child abuse, and numerous vendors will be in attendance to sign children up for local sports leagues, the Boys and Girls Clubs, the YMCA and the Girl Scouts.

Free entertainment will include a Hannah Montana impersonation performance, Irish dancers, George the Magician, Marcy’s Music and Puppet Show, carnival games, a Captain Jack Sparrow look-alike, Miss Lynn and Hannah Face Painting, and much more.

Free food will be provided by area 99 Restaurant & Pub, Sagres Restaurant of Fall River, Antonio’s Restaurant of New Bedford and Café Funchal of New Bedford.

Several area students from Bristol County high schools and middle schools will also be in attendance to either perform, help educate or read the United Nations’ Declaration of the Rights of a Child.

The multicultural event is being held to commemorate April’s National Child Abuse Prevention Month. The idea behind the event is to provide Bristol County’s youth with a safe place to enjoy the day, to help get them connected with various positive programs and to inform parents about child abuse prevention.

“I have said it before and I will be saying it over and over again. Combating child abuse is the highest priority at the District Attorney’s Office,” District Attorney Sam Sutter said. “What we hope to do with this event is to raise the public’s awareness that this is National Child Abuse Prevention month and that as a county, as a state and as a nation, we need to do much more to address a crime that is so grossly unfair and has such disastrous consequences.”

The District Attorney’s Office would like to thank all of its partners, including but not limited to the Buttonwood Park and Zoo, the Buttonwood Neighborhood Association, the New Bedford Mayor’s Office, the New Bedford Police Department, the Children’s Advocacy Centers, 99 Restaurant & Pub, Sagres of Fall River, Café Funchal of New Bedford, Antonio’s Restaurant of New Bedford, all of Bristol County’s public schools, Fun 107 and the Youth Court.