National Missing Children's Day in United States
National Missing Children's Day in United States is held on May 25. And its related observances: - International Missing Children's Day. This event in the third decade of the month May is annual.
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Date commemorating the disappearance of six-year-old Ethan Patz in 1979.
It is estimated that 2,300 children are missing every day in the United States. Children can become missing for many reasons. The National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and Thrownaway Children (NISMART) program identifies 5 categories of episodes that can cause children to become missing: Benign reasons (i.e. misunderstandings); Ran away/thrown away; Lost, stranded, or injured; Family abduction; Stranger abduction.
In 1983, President Ronald Reagan declared May 25, the day that 6-year-old Etan Patz went missing in 1979, as National Missing Children’s Day. Every May 25, we honor children like Etan who are taken or lost from their families and the devastated parents we help when their worst nightmare becomes reality. National Missing Children’s Day also serves as an opportunity to commemorate the missing children we are still searching for, never losing hope that one day they will be reunited with their families.
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