8th Annual Spring into Safety Program Educates Children to Help Keep Them Safe

Although the village of Lisle and DuPage County have relatively low crime rates and are considered safe places in which to live and raise a family, no community is immune to the threat of child abduction.

Statistics show that 797,500 children are reported missing each year (or 2,100 every day) in the United States. Breaking that number down further, approximately 203,000 children were abducted by family members, 198,300 were involuntarily missing, lost or injured, 58,200 were abducted by non-family members and 168,290 were runaways.

Resident Autumn Geist-Lombardo, founder of the Spring Into Safety Program—a free annual program held recently at Lisle Junior High School—strongly believes that providing children, teens and parents with hands-on education keeps kids safer from abduction and exploitation.

“Everything that we do here is to make you aware that there are risks out there,” she said, "and we provide the tools that Kids need to be empowered, to feel stronger and to feel safer.”

Each year, the Spring Into Safety Program features resource tables and presentations. This year, Chuck Goff, with Dignity Memorial in Lisle—the nation’s largest network of funeral and cemetery service providers—conducted Dignity Memorial’s Escape School, a program designed to provide children and parents with ways to recognize, avoid or escape potentially dangerous situations.

This program identifies the difference between 'good' and 'bad' strangers, common lures, and methods to escape and find help, if necessary.

“If we teach a child how to think through the situation, and provide a reaction that was not expected, then they [children] increase their chances of escape,” Goff said. “If something would happen inside of, say, a grocery store—a child’s arm is grabbed by the perpetrator and is being taken out of the store physically—that child should grab hold of store display racks, drag them over, knocks cans off the shelves to attract attention.”

Another presentation by Naperville Police Department Det. Rich Wistocki, an Internet Crimes Investigator with the department for the past 12 years, focused on teaching children, pre-teens, teenagers and parents about safe Internet use—specifically how to reduce the risk of making themselves vulnerable to child predators on popular social networking sites such as Facebook.

Lisle Police Officer Jodie Wise introduced children and parents to the national radKIDS child safety program, in which she .

“You don’t want to live in fear, but you also want to be realistic,” Wise said. “If a child is grabbed, we teach them how to get away. If somebody is going to (try and) abduct a child, they don’t want any attention.

“As safe as this community is, we do have people who come in from other communities. You just have to be careful. That’s what we’re trying to teach the kids. Be polite to people, but if you’re approached in a park by someone who is asking you for help, and they’re an adult, why are they asking a child?”

Another resource table provided free fingerprinting kits. Children and parents also visited a table where they could receive free Kidz Kardz—identification cards made on-site by the Richwoods, Missouri-based Shawn Hornbeck Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to searching for and rescuing abducted children.

Each card contains the child’s photo, and lists his or her full name, height, weight, date of birth, age, race, hair color, eye color and shoe size. The cards are kept by parents in case their child gets lost in a store, for example, or is unexpectedly separated from parents for any reason.

Chris Diamond, co-founder of the Hornbeck Foundation, and Anne Bielby, a volunteer with Rachel Find—an organization dedicated to finding Bolingbrook resident , who was 13 at the time of her disappearance in 1994—were on hand to assist with processing the Kidz Kardz.

Eleven-year-old Shawn Hornbeck was kidnapped while riding his bicycle near his home in Richwoods on Oct. 6, 2002. He was missing for over four years, but found alive on Jan. 12, 2007.

Diamond first became involved in the Hornbeck case because Hornbeck’s stepfather, Craig, was his boss at work and he knew the Hornbeck family.

“When Shawn disappeared, his family didn’t have any updated information on him as far as height, weight, hair color,” Diamond said. “In stressful situations, most parents forget these  vital stats. Because Shawn’s parents didn’t have anything, they wanted to ensure other parents did just in case.

“We know of at least a half-dozen times that these cards have served their purpose. It makes us feel good that they did work.”

Hearing about the Mellon case (Mellon has never been found, and would be 28 years old this year) prompted Geist-Lombardo to get involved with Rachel Find as a volunteer.

“I was at home on maternity leave with my middle daughter when Rachel Mellon became missing,” Geist-Lombardo recalled. “That story just really stayed with me.”

A former IT security professional, Geist-Lombardo founded the Spring into Safety Program in 2004. After becoming involved with Rachelfind, Geist-Lombardo completed Search and Rescue Training with Will County's Emergency Management Agency. She realized that trained search volunteers were important but even more so was prevention and awareness. “I realized that I felt passionately about making a difference,” she said. “That’s when I realized that I had an opportunity to do some prevention. One of the things they talked about (in IT security) was know your risk so you can manage it and limit it.

“So I’m kind of applying the same concept to our children. If you know what the risks are, if you’re aware of what they are, then you can manage the risks and limit it from happening.”

Spring Into Safety is offered for free to Lisle and surrounding communities thanks in part to  Shana Prymicz, Beth Eckard, Karen Fakroddin, Stephanie Trussell , District 202, Lisle Jr. High, Lisle Elementary Home & School, and Lisle Community Character Alliance. For more information or to get involved, contact springintosafety@aol or visit www.sprinintosafety.org