Contributed...Madison — With the contest deadline to enter less than a month away, Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen would like to remind all Wisconsin 5th graders to create posters to “Bring Our Missing Children Home,” which is the theme of the 2014 National Missing Children’s Day Poster Contest. “This is an opportunity to talk with our young children about their personal safety,” Attorney General Van Hollen said. “I look forward to the many creative poster entries from students across Wisconsin.” The poster created by the state winner then will compete nationally. The winner of the national contest will go to Washington, DC, to attend the annual National Missing Children’s Day Ceremony. Last year, Gabriella Horman, a fifth-grade student at Bangor Elementary School in Bangor, WI, was honored during a ceremony after winning the statewide contest. Her poster represented Wisconsin in the national competition. Applicants must be in the fifth grade, and the phrase “Bring Our Missing Children Home” must appear somewhere on the poster. Visit the following link for more details about contest rules, key dates and other resources for educators, participants and others:
Posters must be received at the Wisconsin DOJ by March 7, 2014.
Please send completed posters to:
Susan A. WhiteHorse
DOJ, Division of Criminal Investigation
17 W. Main St.
P.O. Box 7857
Madison, WI 53707-7857
Wisconsin’s Clearinghouse for Missing & Exploited Children & Adults develops and coordinates the process for the statewide poster competition. Each state’s Missing Children Clearinghouse will submit the single winning state poster to the U.S. Department of Justice for final judging. The national judging will take place in April, and one national poster contest winner will be selected for the trip to Washington, DC.
About Wisconsin’s AMBER Alert
When an AMBER Alert is activated in Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ) — Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) notifies the Dane County Public Safety Communication Center, which sends the alert to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children for secondary distribution.
In Wisconsin, the AMBER Alert has been activated 23 times since the program began in 2003, and has safely recovered more than 30 children. Wisconsin’s Clearinghouse for Missing & Exploited Children & Adults at the Wisconsin DOJ coordinates Wisconsin’s AMBER Alert Program, which is a collaborative effort between the Wisconsin DOJ, the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association, Wisconsin Public Radio, the Dane County Public Safety Communication Center, the Wisconsin Educational Communications Board, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, the Wisconsin State Emergency Communications System, the Outdoor Advertising Association of Wisconsin and local law enforcement agencies.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, more than 600 children have been rescued since the AMBER Alert program’s creation in 1996.
Contributed by Dana Brueck