Fundraiser to Honor National Missing Children's Day

National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
Tuesday, 25 March 2003

Beginning May 17th, 2003, retailers from across the country will join together to help raise money for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and its efforts to locate and recover missing and exploited children. The fundraising campaign, titled "Check Out for Children," runs in participating stores from May 17th – May 28th, 2003 in honor of National Missing Children's Day on May 25th. *

"Check Out for Children" offers the option of adding an additional $1, $5 or $10 donation to purchases at participating stores for 11 days in May. More than 2,200 business locations across the country will host the campaign. Check Out for Children organizers, Out Front Productions of Rochester, N.Y., hope to raise $2 million for NCMEC. All donations collected in store during the campaign will be forwarded directly to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization based in Alexandria, Va., was established in 1984 as a public-private partnership to help find missing children and combat child sexual exploitation. It has assisted local law-enforcement agencies on more than 87,000 missing child cases, helping to reunite more than 71,000 children with their families. Today, the organization reports a 94 percent recovery rate. For more information about NCMEC, call 1-800-THE-LOST.

For more information, or to contact National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, see their website at: www.missingkids.org