Wilmington, NC (WWAY) — The Community United Effort introduced a new tool to help with its missing person cases and Safe and Found Program on National Missing Children’s Day.
The organization also known as CUE recently teamed up with a Dutch design company, Promo Bears, to develop a life-size character to accompany educational presentations of CUE’s 2013 safety coloring book, Safe and Found: Who Comes To Look for You.
The life-size version of that character, “Jane,” made her debut on National Missing Children’s Day, May 25.
Jane’s appearance is based on a childhood photo of CUE founder Monica Caison. Tuesday morning, Jane was joined by one of her biggest fans and promoters, McKinley Lanier.
Lanier began promoting CUE’s Safe and Found Program over three years ago at public events, elementary schools and to communities throughout North Carolina. Her primary focus is targeting children under the age of twelve. Over the years McKinley has held many titles through her pageantry winnings and choose the CUE Center for Missing Persons as her ongoing platform which lends support to the awareness of missing persons. She currently holds the title of Miss Wilmington’s Outstanding Teen and developed the Youth Leadership Board for CUE as a way to involve more youth in her campaign for the Safe and Found Program.
“We make presentations to children about the people they can trust if they’re lost or abducted, which can be a pretty heavy topic,” Caison said. “Because Jane is a child, she can help us teach the same lessons in a way that children find relatable and informative without being scary. Plus, the spectacle of a big cartoonish child is bound to make an impression; as Jane makes friends there will be other characters in the years to come”, she added.
Safe and Found: Who Comes To Look for You is a learning tool that provides children with an understanding of all the search resources that are mobilized when a child goes missing. The booklet offers safety tips, large pictures with descriptive teaching lessons, and a word puzzle to help reinforce the message. Although the book targets children K-5 grades, many older children may find it to be informative, as well.