Protecting our Children: State
Announcing New National Poster Contest Initiative
5th Graders Can Compete in the National Missing Children’s
Day Poster Contest
JEFFERSON CITY, Jan. 20 2006-For the first time, the
State of Missouri is participating in the National Missing Children’s
Day Poster Contest. The contest is sponsored each year by the United
States Department of Justice Child Protection Division for 5th grade
students to develop the artwork that will represent America’s
united goal for our missing children: to bring them home safely.
“We are beginning the contest on the heels of
the AMBER Alert Awareness Day Proclamation issued by Governor Blunt
on January 13,” said Mark James, Public Safety Director. “It
is our hope that by partnering with schools throughout the state,
this contest and awareness campaign will help protect Missouri children.”
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the creation
of AMBER Alerts. Nationally, over 214 children have been returned
home safely since the inception. The Missouri AMBER Alert System was
created in 2002. Since then 17 statewide alerts have been issued bringing
21 children home safety. However, there is much work to be done as
last year in Missouri alone there were over 10,559 missing children’s
cases.
An informational letter with online links was sent to
all Missouri school district superintendents through the Department
of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) weekly mailer. That information,
as well as additional materials, can be found online at www.dps.mo.gov
by clicking on the Missing Children’s Poster Contest link. Schools,
school districts, local law enforcement agencies or community organizations
are asked to hold local contests and send one local winner for statewide
judging. The Missouri State Highway Patrol General Headquarters Public
Information and Education Division must receive entries before March
13.
The winner of the state contest will be given the opportunity
to participate in a ceremony in Jefferson City. If selected as the
national winner, the child along with his or her parents and teacher
will be flown travel and lodging expenses paid to Washington, D.C.
on May 25th. He or she will be given an award by President George
Bush at the National Missing Children’s Day Ceremony. The national
winning poster will also be used to represent child safety for the
Department of Justice for the coming year.
The AMBER Alert System began in 1996 when Dallas-Fort
Worth broadcasters teamed with local police to develop an early warning
system to help find abducted children. AMBER stands for America's
Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response and was created as a legacy
to 9-year-old Amber Hagerman, who was kidnapped while riding her bicycle
in Arlington, Texas, and then brutally murdered. Other states and
communities soon set up their own AMBER plans as the idea was adopted
across the nation. Missouri created an AMBER Alert system in 2002.
Missouri is running the statewide contest with the combined
efforts of the governor’s AMBER Alert Advisory Committee and
the Highway Patrol’s Missing Persons Unit. The AMBER committee
is made up of Department of Public Safety Office of the Director and
Highway Patrol representatives, Missouri broadcasters, sheriffs and
police chief’s representatives, and MoDOT and Department of
Health and Senior services personnel.
For more information on the National Missing Children’s
Day Poster Contest, please contact Capt. Kim Hull with the Missouri
State Highway Patrol at (573) 522-9815.