Child Seekers finds new life

Jennifer Knight

Saturday, June 7, 2003 | 3:48 a.m.

Nevada Child Seekers is at 2880 E. Flamingo Road, Suite J, and operates from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Call 458-7009.

A year ago Nevada Child Seekers was helping to find lost and missing children when it was almost lost itself.

But a year after being on the brink of closing because of funding problems, the 18-year-old organization has just celebrated the grand opening of its new location.

The center began having trouble after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. A proliferation of nonprofits in the area, coupled with a poor economy, caused private donations to dry up, Jill LeMasurier, executive director of Child Seekers, said.

"We were going to close our doors. That's how bad things were," she said.

Instead, LeMasurier launched a last-ditch media campaign and asked the public for help. The result is nearly $100,000 in private donations, so far.

The money not only got the center back on its feet, but it also helped expand services in a new location at 2880 E. Flamingo Road that is three times the size of the old one.

"It's a more centralized location," LeMasurier said. "It's more private for our families that come in, and we can just offer more services."

Nevada Child Seekers has 400 volunteers trained by police to search for missing and abducted children.

"We may be one of the few police departments in the country with a resource like this where we have the advantage of having a trained volunteer search force," Lt. Brad Simpson of Metro Police said. "We don't use them very often. But they're there when we need them."

The nonprofit organization also provides counseling to families in crisis and helps disseminate fliers and information about missing children.

And the center plans to form family support groups for parents and relatives of missing children.

LeMasurier said the center will also use $200,000 in federal funding secured by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., to open a new office in Reno, set up a mobile command post for searches and buy hand-held radios for volunteers.

"We have always been able to count on community members and businesses when the going got rough," LeMasurier said. "We are cared about by the community and it shows."