columnist Sandra Thompson: Child's 'passport' compiles key information

THE NEXT TIME you look in on your sleeping child, imagine how you would feel if his bed was empty, and you didn't know where he was.

It's a nightmare when a child disappears, Dawn Goo says. She should know. Ten years ago, her then-husband abducted her 18-month-old son. She would not see him for five years.

"I was lucky. My son was taken care of," Dawn says. "But I'll never have my baby back. I have a son growing into a child I don't know."

She and her husband divorced, and her son was returned to her. However, their bond had been broken, and he eventually went back to live with his father.

Her pain and anguish have spurred Dawn to help parents of missing children. She has put together a "Karing for Kids Child's Passport," which includes all sorts of information police agencies would need to find a missing child.

When a child disappears, parents usually are too distraught to remember pertinent information such as friends' phone numbers, medical history, etc. Sometimes they don't have updated photos or fingerprints of the child. In cases of family abductions, they may not have phone numbers or addresses for ex-spouses, their family or friends.

The child's passport compiles all of this information in one booklet so law-enforcement agencies don't have to waste precious time tracking it down.

Dawn tells parents who think it can't happen to them to go by a school zone and look around. How easy would it be to snatch a child?

Through March of this year, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children assisted law-enforcement and other agencies, as well as families, in 44,576 runaway cases; 15,999 family abduction cases; 5,593 sexual exploitation cases; 2,614 cases where a child was lost, injured or missing; and 1,984 nonfamily abduction cases.

The efforts, according to the center, resulted in the recovery of 46,031 children.

In Metro Police's jurisdiction, 245 children were abducted in 1998. It's not known how many were taken by strangers or family members.

The Karing for Kids Child's Passport has received the endorsement of Sens. Harry Reid and Richard Bryan, Rep. Shelley Berkley and Gov. Kenny Guinn.

Dawn hopes the booklet will be distributed -- free of charge -- throughout Clark County schools. Her ultimate goal is to have it distributed to every child in the United States.

Among the items listed in the booklet are the child's fingerprints; detailed physical description of the child; ex-spouse information and photo, as well as names, addresses and phone numbers of the ex-spouse's family and friends; the child's medical history; information on the child's relatives, friends, favorite hangouts, school, day care and baby sitters; special notes (what kind of music the child listens to, his habits, special jewelry he wears, etc.); and two pages on what parents should do if they suspect their child has been abducted or is a runaway.

There is a page for photos of the child from birth through present age, which would help criminologists with age-enhancement photos. Phone numbers for police departments, missing children hotlines and agencies also are listed.

Dawn has formed Brandleigh Inc., which is a combination of her son and daughter's names, to publicize the child's passport. She hopes to set up a foundation that will print the booklets and distribute them free of charge. She also intends to raise funds by selling ads for the back of the book. Circus Circus has supported the effort locally.

There is a website, findyourchild.com, to provide information on the passport.

Dawn hopes that an "invention" she is working on will help prevent abductions. She's waiting for a patent.

She's also counting on her mother to help raise awareness and funds to print the booklets. A professional clown and storyteller named Poppy Doodle, her mother has offered to perform at local parties May 18-31. Dawn is available to speak to any group -- free of charge -- about safety tips. (Call 390-9782.)

Dawn says being the daughter of a clown may strike some people as funny, but the message of her Karing for Kids Child's Passport is serious.

"I know what it's like to lose a child, as well as how difficult it is to give police all the necessary information when you are frozen with fear inside," she says.

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