This Memorial Day, Also Take a Moment to Remember Missing Children
What does a daddy blogger write about on Memorial Day? Absolutely, this is a day to remember our fallen Military heroes, but as fate would have it, this year, Memorial Day also falls on May 25, which is recognized as National Missing Children’s Day.
This day was recognized by President Ronald Reagan in 1983, following several high profile missing children’s cases. These cases included the murder of Adam Walsh, the son of America’s Most Wanted host John Walsh. John went on to found the Adam Walsh Child Resource Center. Later, the Adam Walsh Center merged with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children(NCMEC), where John still serves on the board of directors.
I’ll spare you the gruesome details of these high profile cases, since many of my readers are parents themselves. I don’t want to dwell on bad news, but I would like to take this time to urge you to take action and prevent anything of this sort from happening to your family. Here are a few things you can do to make sure your kids are safe:
- This first one is fun! Take as many pictures of your kids as you can! Make sure that some of these are even in focus. Trust me, this gets harder as they age and realize it’s embarrassing when Mom or Dad sticks a camera in their face, but this is imperative if anything were to happen, to have a good quality picture to identify your child.
- Make sure you keep child IDs updated. You can find great child ID kits at My Precious Kid.
- Make sure your kids know not to talk to strangers unless you’re right there with them. If someone does try to abduct them, teach them to kick, scream, pull away, and otherwise attract attention. According to the NCMEC, 88% of attempted child abductions are thwarted by the kids’ own actions.
- Teach your children how to call 911.
- There’s safety in numbers, if your kids walk to school, make sure they have a buddy with them.
These are just a few of the things that you can do to keep your child safe. My hope is that as you’re grilling hot dogs and hamburgers, enjoying the big summer kickoff, that you take a moment to remember those that have served our country so that we may lead free and wonderful lives. I also hope that you enjoy your family, and take a moment to praise your family’s safety. Do those things that will keep you safe.
This blog entry is part of a larger event found at Bloggers Unite. Be sure to check out the other participants!
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- 25 Tips to Keep Your Child Safe (blisstree.com)
- Support the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (christophermonnat.com)
- How To Become a Hero & Help Find Abducted Children using Mobile Amber Alerts (makeuseof.com)
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Tags: Child, Child abduction, John Walsh, Memorial Day, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, National Missing Children, NCMEC, Ronald Reagan
LostNMissing, ran by a gal who makes banners for the Lost and Missing, has been entered into a contest on Twitter.
If she ends up in the final twenty, she will have a huge spotlight put on her work that highlights the Lost and Missing.
I run http://www.InformingChristians.com and was contacted by one of her people.
The Twitter page keeps giving people a hard time opening and a lot of people give up trying to vote. As a result, all the pretty girls that are in it just for fame are winning. Some already famous people are in the contest too, like Oprah.
People can vote twice an hour, and the contest ends, June 8, 2009.
Information can be found on a page of mine:
http://debrajmsmith.com/060309HL.html
Thanks for any help,
Debra J.M. Smith
of.-
http://www.InformingChristians.com