A Day in the Life: Patricia Mejia

(ROCKWALL, TX — April 16, 2019) Meet the woman behind the “Go Blue” movement that is sweeping Rockwall County this month. Patricia Mejia, President and CEO of The Children’s Advocacy Center for Rockwall County, is determined to make “blue” and “April” synonymous with Child Abuse Prevention Month. This national awareness campaign is already present in several cities throughout the United States and Patricia wants it to be a regular occurrence in Rockwall County.

Patricia leads the Children’s Advocacy Center (or CAC) in providing a place for child victims of all types of abuse to start the process of hope and healing. What you might not know about her is that she came to the Rockwall County CAC after spending 12 years with the American Heart Association. She has a passion for kids and is a “surrogate Aunt” to many of the kids in Rockwall, several of them children of the volunteers who pass through the CAC doors.

When she is not spending her days and evenings and usually weekends helping the youth in our community, Patricia can be found enjoying musical theater with her husband Roger. Her passion for music and the arts started at age three when she began dancing, including tap, jazz, modern, ballet, clogging, highland and flamenco. The youngest scholarship recipient at the San Francisco Ballet School, Patricia danced professionally with the San Francisco Ballet, Milwaukee Ballet, Oakland Ballet and Smuin Ballets San Francisco. A fun fact about her is that she appeared in Women’s Song which won three Emmy Awards.

Aside from taking in a good musical, her favorite thing to do in her downtime is watching “This Is Us” and playing with her Silver Lab, Houdini. “He makes me laugh every day, and every day I thank my husband for our puppy,” Patricia said.

Patricia also enjoys cooking and family gatherings and loves to travel to other countries to experience different cultures.

For now, Patricia is focused on April and creating awareness. In fact, if you look around Rockwall County, pay attention to businesses and restaurants offering “blue” specials for child abuse awareness, and keep an eye out in the evenings for buildings such as the courthouse “going blue.” A special awareness video featuring community members is playing around town as well, so look for this must-see video on social media. This dancing dynamo is working hard to keep the momentum going on the awareness campaign and she’ll be wrapping up the month with the Go Blue for Kids gala on April 26, 2019 at the Hilton in Rockwall.

With over 300 cases in just the nine months the Rockwall County CAC has been open, I think we can all agree that having Patricia in this leadership role is wonderful.

For more information on what the Children’s Advocacy Center does and how they help the children in Rockwall County, visit rockwallcac.org.

By Mary Bierds, Blue Ribbon News. Courtesy photo.

Our monthly print edition is delivered free to ~22,000 homes in Rockwall and Heath, TX.