We will bring home all missing children, but
We NEED You!
"RIBBONS OF HOPE" CAMPAIGN
The "Ribbons of Hope" Campaign started right here with all of you on the Internet. It's our chance to show the world that the people of the Internet care about missing children.
We are going to invite any of you that would like to join us in Washington D.C. to support the children. We are asking you to help us make May National Missing Children's Month.
We are asking all of you to display yellow, pink and blue
ribbons for the children from now until May 31. And we are asking those of you that cannot join us in Washington to hold local "Ribbons of Hope" campaigns at your local malls.
Part of May's activities will include:
CANDLE LIGHT VIGIL FOR MISSING CHILDREN
On May 15th, hundreds of parents and family members are going to hold a Candle Light Vigil in front of the White House for Missing Children. This is their chance to ask the government, the media, and people around the world to help these children.
In front of the White House we will all be singing a song whose chorus is "Who hears the cries of the Little Children." We are hoping for a national release of this song.
We are inviting you to join us at the White House (1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D.C.) on May 15th at twilight to show our support for the missing children and their families. It appears that a large number of people from the online community are already making arrangements to come out to show their support.
You are also welcome to attend the International Parental Abduction Conference May 12th thru the 15th. Please contact PARENT01@aol.com (Maureen Dabbagh) for details.
Candlelight Vigil ~ May 15th ~ Washington, D.C.
If any of you are talented ribbon makers or have access to a button making machine...........we are seeking help for buttons and ribbons to be made for participants at the white house to wear!
OTHER WAYS TO HELP
ASK OUR SENATORS TO SHOW THEIR SUPPORT
Ask your senators to send a member of their staff to the White House on May 15th to meet the parents and show the Senators support for the parents of missing children. Ask them to display a "Ribbon of Hope" on their car antenna's. And ask them to make May National Missing Children's Month.
Email then and say:
Dear Senator; Please show your support for missing children at the Candle Light Vigil on May 15th, 1999.
Detailed email list of senators, governors etc.
HAND OUT FLYERS AND RIBBONS AT LOCAL MALLS
We are also asking that during May, people all over the country (you), try to help get National media for the kids by going to local malls and handing out flyers. You can contact office supply stores such as Office Depot, Staples and others and ask them if they will donate 500 to a thousand flyers for missing children (most will say yes).
Ask local stores if they will donate some yellow, pink and blue ribbon so you can make ribbons to hand out. Contact your local mall and ask them to allow you to set up a booth to hand the flyers and ribbons out, sometime in the middle of May.
Contact your local reporters and tell them that as part of a national effort to help missing children, you will be handing out flyers and "Ribbons of Hope" at the local mall on such and such a date and time. Ask them to come out and cover your efforts, as part of a national story. When you have all of this arranged please contact (BaddTeddy@aol.com) and we will put you on a list of people that will be on TV helping the kids. When this list is big enough, we will begin forwarding the list to the NATIONAL MEDIA as part of a national story on our "Ribbons of Hope" campaign to help the kids...
DISPLAY BLUE, PINK AND YELLOW RIBBONS
During May we are asking people around the world to place Blue (For Boys), Pink (for Girls) and Yellow Ribbons (Signifying missing person) on their car antenna's, mail boxes, etc ... to show their support for the parents of missing children. Simply put these ribbons in places where others are apt to see them.
Out of ribbons? Use yellow, pink and blue balloons.
The story behind the colors of the ribbons:
"Ribbons Of Hope"
Forty Years? Has it really been forty long years?
It was time for the Ribbon Lady to get up. She didn't want to. She just wanted to lay in bed. To bury her head in the pillows. To hide her body under the covers. To hide from the pain that reality would bring. To avoid thinking. To escape from reality.
But, reality and the pain arrived with the morning sunshine as they always did. And her first thoughts, were for her daughter, as they always were. Her daughter who had disappeared, forty years ago today...
Forty years... And yet the tears, for her little girl, threatened to escape down her cheeks again. Forty years, and never once had she wakened to anything other than thoughts of love for her missing daughter, and the pain of not knowing where she was. The anguish of not knowing.
She threw off the covers....
The ribbon lady rose, and dressed. She thought of how this would be her last day living in her home. Their home. The home where her husband had died at such a young age, even before his daughter was born. And the home from which her daughter had disappeared.
Today, was the last time she would ever see her home from the inside. The money had run out. There was nothing left. This had been their home, she had fought to save it, but with her health failing due to a broken heart, she simply did not have much fight left in her.
Today, would probably be her last day being called the Ribbon Lady... Or even the Scare Crow.... After today, people would probably start referring to her as the Bag Lady... After she was thrown out of her own home by the bank.
Amazing... She had never hurt anyone ... but the whole world seemed out to get her. All she had ever wanted was a family. A husband and a child to love. But now he had passed and her daughter was lost, probably forever.
Why couldn't she just give up and start over? Why couldn't she accept that her daughter was gone? Why couldn't she start over and start a new family?
Was she really crazy like everyone seemed to think?
Well... It didn't matter... What is... Is what is... And so she did what she did everyday... She got up... And faced the day...
Today, she would be packing her bags and moving out onto the streets. Maybe she could afford a few nights at the local Inn, but soon even that would be beyond her reach. She worked, but forty years of emotional pain had sapped her strength, and her body was simply worn out. Besides, who wanted to employ the crazy woman. The ribbon lady?
She stopped herself. She had to compose herself. Today, there was one more chance to find her daughter. Even after forty years, she refused to give up. She knew she was crazy. Everyone did. But that didn't stop her from hoping.
Today, the big city reporter from the other side of the country was coming. Somehow, her begging and pleading at the local newspaper, had managed after all these years had managed to catch the attention of one last reporter. She knew they didn't think there was a chance she would find her daughter. They were simply covering the story, because the legend of the Ribbon Lady made good small talk. A funny human interest story. The story of a crazy woman. Who was soon to be homeless.
She packed her bags and set them by the front door. When the sun set, she would walk home, well not after today, to get her bags and move onto the streets. But she couldn't dwell on that now. She had ribbons to hang.
And so, the Ribbon Lady, as she had for forty years, gathered up a hand full of yellow, pink and blue ribbons, and walked out the door. She walked towards the East side of town. Enjoying the feeling of hope that the sun gave her as it rose in the sky. Even after all this time, her hopes rose (yes it was crazy) as the sun did. Maybe today?
She the yellow, pink and blue ribbons to telephone poles, trees, mailboxes. Anything and everything.
People watched her as she walked down the street. When she turned to look at them, they looked away. No one had looked her in the eyes in many, many years. For some, it was because they thought she was crazy, and maybe they were even a little afraid of her. For others, it was shame, for not helping. And for others, some of those that still remembered, it was out of sorrow. They knew her pain, but they had given up hope a long time ago.
She had almost covered the East side of town when she realized it was nearly noon. The reporter was supposed to meet her at noon in the park. She had to hurry or she might be too late. She still couldn't believe her luck. A reporter. What had it been since a reporter took interest in her story? Five years? Ten? Twenty or more? After all, who in the world was crazy enough to keep looking for a child that had been missing for Forty years? And what reporter would want to cover it?
Well, the important thing was, the reporter was coming, they were going to do the story of her forty years of searching for her daughter. And maybe, just maybe, somewhere her little girl (no.. she's a 42 year old woman now) if she was alive might see the ribbons and remember...
Oh darn... now she was daydreaming....
And so the Ribbon Lady ran to the park. Ribbons trailing like a kites tail behind her...
She arrived at the park, slightly after noon. Oh please don't let the reporter to have come and gone. The man who ran the local paper had promised her that the reporter would arrive at exactly noon to do a story.
She saw no one that looked like a reporter... And she started to cry....
No... I can't cry. I have to do everything I can to help my little girl. And crying won't help. And so she picked up her roll of ribbons. Her last roll of ribbons? How would she buy ribbons when the last of the money from her final paycheck at the bakery ran out? She wasn't even worried about a roof over her head anymore. What would she do if she couldn't buy any more ribbons?
Well... No time for that now. She might as well put some ribbons up while she waited for the reporter....
And so there she stood, tying yellow, pink and blue ribbons around the trees in the city park. As she had tied how many ribbons in the past. Thousands? Hundreds of thousands. Maybe even millions? Each time asking herself, if it would be the last? And each time knowing, there would be one more.
"Excuse me?....."
What? Hunh...? She had been day dreaming... She turned and there was the reporter standing there.
She must have looked really strange standing there with her hands full of ribbons... and a blank look on her face... This wasn't good... What if the reporter left...
The reporter (perhaps a little flustered) started again... "Excuse me... I wanted to ask....."
But... Having dealt with reporters in the past... How many... dozens? Hundreds? Oops.. She was drifting again... Darn... She was going to blow it. The reporter was going to think she was nuts... and would say something polite and walk away. Taking her last chance to find her daughter...
And so she took charge. As she had so many times in the past. She said, "You wanted to ask why I am hanging the ribbons... You wanted to hear my story..." and seeing a look of confusion on the reporters face.. She decided she better dive right into it or she was going to lose her chance....
It happened forty years ago...
Forty years ago, my daughter disappeared. It happened while I was asleep. Someone came into my home and took her. And I have been searching for her for over forty years...
Darn... She was jumping forward to fast... She needed to slow down and tell the story from beginning to end, in a manner where the reporter could tell her story. Give her this one last chance to help...
She stopped... And asked... "Please, young lady, give me a chance to tell you my whole story... Give me a chance..."
"Well... I wanted to..."
Please............................
Ok.....
And so they sat on a park bench, in the shade of a big tree... and she told her story to the young lady reporter.....
When I was young, I wanted more than anything to marry a nice man, and have a daughter. And I almost got my wish. I did marry a very wonderful man, but he died shortly after we were married. A few months later, our daughter was born.
She was a beautiful baby. Her eyes glowed with happiness. Nothing in my life felt as good as when I was holding her in my arms, and she would look into my eyes and smile.
I used to spend hours just telling her stories. Me making faces at her... And she would make faces at me... I loved her and she loved me.
And then someone stole her in the middle of the night. Stole her right out of my bed while I slept. And I have never seen her since...
The reporter started to say something... Please Miss... Even after all these years this is very hard for me... Please... let me finish... And the reporter sat back to listen again...
I tried to find my daughter. It was in all the local papers. The police searched. But they couldn't find her. No one had any clues. We put up posters of her all over town, and in the surrounding cities... But, no one had seen her...
Finally, after the townspeople, the police and the reporters had given up, I hired a detective. After a year, the detective came up with a possibility. It seems a woman with a strange obsession for baby dolls had escaped from an asylum upstate a few weeks before my daughter disappeared. Once again the media jumped on it. Maybe the woman that had escaped the asylum had been wanting a daughter. Which explained her obsession with dolls. Maybe she had taken my daughter, as her own. Maybe my daughter was alive.
And so the search started all over again. This time they placed posters of the woman from the asylum up along with my daughters picture. The people here in town helped. The people in the surrounding towns helped. The police helped. And even the national media ran a story on it for a few days. But no one found her.
Not until a year later....
The woman who had escaped the asylum was found in an alley. Dead.
There were no signs of my daughter. She had simply vanished without a trace. And everyone had given up. Everyone but me. I have never given up hope of finding my daughter. Well, sometimes for a few hours. A few hours when I cry. Scream. Go nuts. But the next day, I wake up and decide that, I gotta try again today. My daughter needs me.
Every day I asked myself, how can I find her? What clues are there? What can I do? My daughter had only learned a few words before she was taken. She would not know my name. She would not know how to find me. Within a short time she might even have forgotten what I looked like. How could I find her?
And then I thought of the "Ribbons of Hope", or as she called them the Bibbons of Hope. When my daughter was just a baby, I had hung ribbons over where she slept. Yellow, Pink and Blue Ribbons like a rainbow. They hung from a mobile over where she slept, waving around every time there was even the slightest breeze. She loved them. I had hung them just beyond her reach. She would spend hours each day, staring at them. Fascinated by the way they moved in the breeze. Always reaching up her little hands to try to touch them...
Sobbing....
I'm sorry...I didn't mean to l cry...Even after... well... never mind.... I better continue...
So after my daughter disappeared... And everyone else had given up hope of being able to find her... I tried to think of a way to help her find me... And then I thought of the ribbons... I ran to her room... I had left it exactly the way it was when she disappeared... But there was one thing missing... The ribbons...
I don't know... if the kidnapper took them... and if so why.. or if my daughter had grabbed them when she was taken... but I realized the ribbons were the key to helping my daughter find me...
She had spent so many hours playing with those ribbons. I used to hold them in my hand raising and lowering them, playing a game where she would try to grab them as I would pull them away. If there was one thing my little girl would remember it would be the ribbons...
And so I began putting up yellow, pink and blue ribbons all over town. At first the townspeople helped. We put up thousands of ribbons. I don't think they ever believed that the ribbons would help. But they were trying to do "something" to help. Once again the newspapers, this time only the local ones, told the story of my search for my little girl. And the townspeople started calling me, behind my back, the ribbon lady.
Everyone eventually gave up again. This time forever. But I never did. Not really. I knew my daughter was not old enough to look for me, and it might be years before she could begin to search. Maybe not even until she was an adult. If she was even alive. But, when and if she did begin to search for me, I hoped she would see the ribbons and know she had found me.
The ribbons became my only hope of ever seeing my daughter again...
Please don't cry young lady... I know this story is painful... But, well let me finish.... No... Please do not interrupt. I haven't told this story to anyone in more years than I can remember, and it's important to me to finish.
So... Where was I? Oh yes... the ribbons... The ribbons of hope... I began to hang them every Sunday... Sometimes here in town. Sometimes in other towns. Occasionally I even drove to other states to hang them. I became somewhat of a local legend.
At first people thought it was sad. But time past, and people moved away. Others moved in. Children grew up. The world changed. People knew there was a Ribbon Lady who tied yellow, pink and blue ribbons to trees and telephone poles every Sunday... but they forgot why she tied them there. And so, the legend became that I was a crazy old lady. The fact that I lost forty pounds made it worse. I became the scare crow that you see before you today. My health, began to fail. It became a struggle to continue. But weather permitting I never missed putting up ribbons on Sunday.
Now, forty years have passed. The townspeople think I am crazy. I have become so sad that my health is failing and I find it hard to find work. Today, I will become homeless. But still, as long as I live, every Sunday I will put up ribbons for my daughter.
I'm not crazy... I just love my daughter....
Young lady... Why are you crying? You are a reporter.... I'm sure you have heard much more painful stories than mine.....
Why are you looking at me like that? Why are you crying so hard? I can barely understand a word you are saying... You're not the reporter? Then why have you been sitting here listening to me? The little wooden box? You want me to look inside the little wooden box? Why? OK, I'll look inside the box?
What's this? Ribbons? I don't understand. Why are you carrying this box with the ribbons in it? I can barely make out your words.... I love you mother? Mother? Mommy? Mother.....................?
