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In 1983, President Ronald Reagan proclaimed May 25 as National Missing
Children's Day. Each year the Department of Justice (DOJ) commemorates
Missing Children's Day with a ceremony honoring the heroic and exemplary
efforts of agencies, organizations, and individuals to protect children.
In 2000, Attorney General Eric Holder, then serving as Deputy Attorney
General, presented the first annual National Missing Children's Day Poster
Contest award at DOJ's Missing Children's Day observance.
The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) extends
its congratulations to Dakhota-Rae Brown, a fifth grader from Henderson
Elementary School in Cheyenne, WY, and the winner of its 2009 National
Missing Children's Day Poster Contest. This year 43 states and the District
of Columbia submitted their winning entries from among the thousands
entered by fifth graders across the country—the highest level of participation
in the contest's 10-year history.
The theme of this year's contest was "bring our missing children home." As
can be seen in OJJDP's photo gallery of
the 2009 state winners, each poster addressed that theme in a manner
as unique as the child who created it. This is also reflected in their
description of their art work.
"Just as cancer, the military, AIDS, and others have awareness ribbons,
so do missing children," Dahkota-Rae observed. "I chose to make my ribbon
all the colors of the rainbow as kidnapping is not reserved for one kind
of child. My ribbon is made up of the names of missing children. The
heart in the center is the heart of parents and loved ones waiting for
those children to come home, as home is where the heart is."
The Missing Children's Day poster contest provides an opportunity for
schools, law enforcement, and other community organizations to engage
children and their parents in informative discussions about the problem
of missing children and how to prevent it.
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