Concord’s Fax Services Help Find Kids Faster

Seattle based company helps nationwide non-profit locate missing children.

SAN JOSE, CA, April 24, 2006 – Last week, Georgia K. Hilgeman-Hammond, Executive Director and Founder of San Jose-based missing children’s organization, Vanished Children's Alliance (VCA), journeyed to Seattle to present a plaque as a token of gratitude to Chris Moore, president of Concord Technologies, who graciously donated valuable fax services to her agency as part of the company’s Charitable Giving program. Also participating in the presentation was Heidi Meyerholtz, Charitable Giving Coordinator for Concord Technologies.

Concord Technologies’ fax services allow VCA’s Casework Department to disseminate a substantial amount of high quality faxes of the posters of missing and abducted children in a very short amount of time. The posters sent out via Concord are developed in-house by VCA when a missing or abducted child becomes registered with the agency and meets VCA fax dissemination criteria.

The system works the following way: Once a missing or abducted child is registered with VCA, the agency then uses the information provided to it by law enforcement agencies and the searching parent(s) to create an informational poster. This poster is then part of a targeted fax dissemination to specific geographical locations determined by the VCA Casework Department. The VCA poster faxes are sent to places such as airports, hotels/motels, schools, convenience stores, and gas stations.

This dissemination takes place instantly, sending as many as 5,000 faxes simultaneously. By using this technology, VCA dramatically increases the timeliness of the missing or abducted child information to the public, which exponentially increases the chances of a successful recovery of that child. Because time is the number one enemy of missing and abducted children, this rapid distribution of information saves time, resources, and missing and abducted children’s lives. The Concord Technologies fax service has been directly credited with the safe return of three missing and abducted children.

The first was a 7 year old girl who was abducted in Pennsylvania by her non-custodial mother. The abductor was located in Long Beach, CA, after being recognized by a friend when she saw the missing child posters displayed throughout the city. The second was a 14 year old runaway from Ohio, who was located when someone recognized her and called law enforcement after viewing one of VCA’s faxed posters. The third was a 13 year old runaway from Washington, who was located when someone recognized her from one of VCA’s poster displayed in a store window and called in the sighting to VCA.

About VCA: The Vanished Children's Alliance is a national, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting all children from disappearing. To ensure children’s safety, VCA educates the public and professionals about the serious issue of missing and abducted children. VCA works to prevent, locate, and recover child victims and reunite them with their families in collaboration with law enforcement, other credible service agencies, and communities at large. Since their incorporation in 1981, VCA has assisted in the location, recovery, reunification, and reintegration of more than 32,000 missing and abducted children.

About Concord Technologies: Concord Technologies provides leading-edge messaging services to clients ranging from small/home offices to Fortune 500 companies. Concord Technologies has been a market leader in the enhanced messaging industry since 1994. Concord’s Charitable Giving program focuses its help towards non-profit organizations which assist environmental and women and children’s causes.

CONTACT:
Georgia Hilgeman-Hammond (408) 296-1113
Heidi Meyerholtz 1-800-792-0329 ext. 204

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