The KlaasKIDS Foundation is sponsoring its inaugural “Light the Way Home for the Missing” walk this Sunday in downtown Pensacola. The event is designed to raise awareness about missing person cases along the Gulf Coast.
It’s being organized by Brad Dennis, KlaasKIDS National Search Director, based in Pensacola. Dennis says the prevalence of missing children remains a serious problem, noting that every minute 22 children disappear. That equates to 2200 children a day in the United States that are reported missing. Florida averages between 300-400 children on its missing children’s list.
The walk will begin at Bartram Park and conclude at Pensacola Missing Children’s Monument at Hawkshaw Memorial Lagoon Park.
The memorial is believed to be the nation’s only monument to missing children. It was inspired by the case of 19-year-old Joanna Otto, who disappeared November 20, 1992 from Pensacola. Also highlighted is the case of 14-year-old Danielle Bell. She disappeared September 29, 2001 from Cantonment. More recent cases include 19-year-old Brittany Wood, who went missing May 20th, 2013 from Mobile, AL and 25-year-old Tiffany Daniels, who disappeared August 12, 2013 from Pensacola State College.