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Project Jason Gives Help, Hope to Missing Persons' Families
By Dawn Rizzoni
CNSNews.com Correspondent
July 11, 2005
(CNSNews.com) - Some missing persons cases, such as those involving Shasta and Dylan Groene and "runaway bride" Jennifer Wilbanks, have received extensive media coverage. But the disappearances of thousands of other people get little attention, and their loved ones receive little help and hope.
"Awareness of a missing person is often key to resolution of these cases," Kelly Jolkowski, founder and president of Project Jason, a non-profit organization focusing on the vast majority of missing persons cases that get little or no attention.
"The more often a missing loved one's face is seen, the greater the odds of location and reunion," Jolkowski said.
According to FBI statistics, 47,589 people have been listed as missing since May 1, although Jolkowski said such statistics are unreliable due to a large number of unreported incidents.
Since its inception in October of 2003, Project Jason has developed several methods to aid in finding missing persons, including "Adopt a Missing Person" and "18-Wheel Angels."
In the Adopt a Missing Person program, individuals of all ages send away for free literature, buttons, fliers and posters related to a particular missing person.
Participants then hand out the posters and fliers, wear buttons with photos of their adopted person and distribute information about the disappearance. To date, 1,156 "adoptions" of missing people have been made.
Another program is 18-Wheel Angels, in which truck drivers volunteer their time and resources to help locate a missing loved one. The drivers print out a featured poster from Project Jason's website (which changes posters every other month) and post them along their routes.
Dozens of families have benefited from Jolkowski's efforts, including the family of 24-year old Tamika Huston, who vanished from Spartanburg, S.C., a year ago.
"I spent many frustrated days and nights trying to contact national media regarding Tamika's disappearance," said her aunt, Rebkah Howard. "I felt as though it was imperative that her story be known as far and wide as possible in order to increase the chances of her coming home safely to us."
Howard contacted Project Jason for help. Jolkowski "listened and helped when so many others were simply not interested," Howard said. "She provided guidance and support and made extraordinary efforts to post Tamika's photo and information on various websites that feature the missing."
Tamika was also included in the Adopt a Missing Person program. "My sister, Tamika's mother, was particularly touched by the kindness of the strangers who would 'adopt' her daughter and keep her story alive by doing something as simple as wearing a pin bearing her photo," Howard said.
She added that Project Jason fills the gap that is left by lack of attention by national media. "There are thousands of missing persons in this country," Howard said. "The majority of them do not have the benefit of round-the-clock coverage on the various networks.
"Project Jason is there to serve all of these individuals and their families who are so desperate to find them. I find this to be amazing work for the mother of a young man who still remains missing to this day," she added.
Jolkowski's son Jason went missing at 19 years of age on June 13, 2001, from the family's driveway in Omaha, Neb., but Jason's story has attracted none of the national media attention that has been focused on other cases.
Jolkowski and Nebraska State Sen. Pat Bourne, were instrumental in getting Jason's Law passed -- a bill to create a statewide clearinghouse of information on missing persons and provide training and education to law enforcement officials.
To date, no individuals have been found through the project, but Jolkowski said she doesn't measure success by the number of people located. Instead, she said it is based on "how it makes the families of our missing loved ones feel when they know that others are now helping them.
"Many times in these cases, after law enforcement has sifted through the clues, and there are no more leads to follow, what is left is awareness and hope," she said. "Those are the sustaining gifts we provide to the families we service."
