In Canada, tens of thousands of children go missing each year and in many cases, the child’s abductor is a family member or a friend of the family.
Amanda Pick, the executive director of the Missing Children Society of Canada works tirelessly to reunite children with their family and to put a stop to child abductions. She says the number of child abductions is staggering.
“When I first got into this work I just couldn't believe it,” said Amanda. “Last year, 45 thousand children were reported missing in our country and that's a statistic provided by RCMP.”
“I just could not wrap my head around that.”
Serving as the organization’s executive director for nearly four years, Amanda has focused on developing ways to involve every Canadian in the effort to find missing kids.
“You can donate on Facebook and your Twitter account and we'll directly post on your news feed so that creates this technology platform that connects us.”
Amanda and her team have built a network of partners in the corporate world and with law enforcement agencies.
Strut Creative is a proud partner of the Missing Children Society and the technology firm developed CodeSearch, a program for the organization, which assists in active searches.
“They (Strut Creative) built a technology system that has a downloadable app that connects our corporate partners and their employees to law enforcement. It's been game-changing and unbelievable for us.”
WestJet is a strong supporter of the organization and a CodeSearch partner. The airline provides flights to investigators with the Missing Children Society of Canada to assist in the search for, and the retrieval, of missing kids.
Gregg Saretsky, CEO of Westjet, urges all Canadian businesses to support the Missing Children Society.
“I would challenge every single Canadian CEO to put the challenge to their organizations with respect to how they can help, how they can consider becoming a CodeSearch partner.
Tricia Harder moved to Calgary from the west coast so she could alongside Amanda.
“She’s a force of nature and you can't help but believe that anything she says is gonna happen,” said Tricia. ”Her passion and drive was definitely what made me want to come and work for the Missing Children Society of Canada.”
“(Amanda is going to be the person that changes the world and I wanted to be a part of that team.”
Amanda says the success of the organization is the result of a strong team effort.
“I'm incredibly proud and grateful to have the opportunity to stand as one person with a group of amazing individuals,” said Amanda. “(We’re) making it so babies don't go missing in our country. I say babies because it's very personal to me.”
For her efforts to keep children safe and to reunite families, Amanda Pick is this week’s Inspiring Albertan.
With files from CTV's Darrel Janz
