THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, May 17, 1996 TAG: 9605170485
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
Joe Davis has had some experience in ``finding'' lost children.
After a troubled youth and two ill-fated attempts at college, the South Bronx, N.Y., native earned a degree and became an inner-city school teacher.
Davis said he gravitated to the rough and tough students and created a program that taught young African-American men etiquette as part of their education.
He founded a similar program a couple of years ago at Edenton's John A. Holmes High School, after moving with his wife, teacher Valerie, and family to the Albemarle area.
``I genuinely love kids, especially those people have written off,'' he said, ``because there have been times in my life that people had written me off, and I think I turned out all right.''
Davis, 32, wants to help keep children safe and at home.
He has started his own business, which he calls Faythco Systems Unlimited Marketing ``because of my Christian beliefs and because I . . . just believe, with my faith, that the company is going to do well and grow.''
Currently, he is a registered agent for Child Shield USA. It's designed to help parents prevent, if possible, and assist, if necessary, lost, kidnapped or runaway children.
Programs to prevent and help find missing children, such as Child Shield, are receiving special attention recently because of National Missing Child Day on Saturday.
Child Shield includes coloring books and posters on child safety, but mainly it's a communications center in the event of an emergency.
Child Shield USA's president, David Slockbower of Pennsylvania,appeared last year on ``The Oprah Winfrey Show'' as a national child safety expert. Slockbower and his wife, Ellen, founded the company in 1990.
Instructions are given on how to videotape children, and then a copy is filed at Child Shield's headquarters in Titusville, Pa.
When a child is missing, Child Shield will duplicate and distribute up to 100 video copies to media and police. As many as 400 colored posters can be produced within that same time.
Parents pay a premium - $29.99 for two years' coverage - for a service they may never need.
But consider these statistics from the U.S. Department of Justice:
An average 358,600 children are abducted annually, an overwhelming majority by family members.
Another 114,600 kidnapping attempts are made by nonfamily members.
More than 450,000 children run away from home each year.
Throughout the Albemarle area, civic groups are sponsoring child safety programs to promote Saturday's National Missing Child Day.
From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at Southgate Mall, the Elizabeth City Kiwanis Sunrise Club and Elizabeth City Police Department are sponsoring free children's fingerprinting.
Similar programs will take place elsewhere across the state.
Child Shield enhances these services by using color photography and acting as ``a one-stop source for immediate assistance,'' Davis said.
``They're the only company in this country that deals with the video medium as a means of recovery - of getting the child back,'' he said.
After being contacted, Child Shield's home office will call local and federal police, national missing children's agencies and more than two dozen nationally syndicated and network television programs.
Ten percent of gross profits are returned to organizations - schools, churches, parent-teacher associations and day care centers - that buy into the service. It creates a partnership of sorts, Davis said.
Davis believes the transient nature of rural northeastern North Carolina and urban Hampton Roads areas makes Child Shield attractive.
``It's a unique opportunity for parents to have at least some peace of mind,'' he said. ``In my heart, I know it will work.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by DREW C. WILSON, The Virginian-Pilot
Joe Davis, who has taught in New York City and Edenton, now works
for Child Shield USA, which helps parents prevent kidnapping and
runaways. Parents pay a premium - $29.99 for two years' coverage -
for a service they may never need.
by CNB