Saratoga News

Photograph by Robert Scheer

Julie Perez of Saratoga founded MAC Watch to help find missing children.

Missing children, a problem everyone wants to disappear

Saratoga mom founds search organization

By Carolyn Leal

Every 40 seconds in this country a child is lost or abducted.

When Julie Perez heard that disturbing statistic, she decided to do something about it.

She founded MAC Watch, a missing and abducted children's search organization, in her Saratoga home in 1995. She has applied for state and federal nonprofit status and expects to receive it by the end of 1997.

Meanwhile, she sends out a monthly newsletter to some 5,000 people in the area and publicizes the faces of missing children any way she can.

MAC (Missing and Abducted Children) Watch has scheduled two fundraising events this summer, a rummage sale in downtown Campbell on June 28 and a casino night at the Scottish Rite center in San Jose on Aug. 22. Volunteers are needed to work on both fundraisers, Perez says.

Perez works with other missing children's organizations, but unlike most others, she does not have the personal involvement of having a missing child. "I got into this because I cared about the cause," she says. "It was a combination of being a new mom and sitting down to the news one afternoon and seeing the statistic that a child is missing every 40 seconds."

Perez, mother of a 4-year-old, with a second child on the way, had no prior experience in the missing children's field. She previously worked in finance at Silicon Valley companies. But she has carved out a special niche in the area of child search.

"[Other organizations] work in the political arena, do fingerprinting, speak at schools, have case investigators; we have narrowed our focus solely to getting the faces of missing children broadcast."

Of the 1.5 million missing children reported each year, some 354,000 are abducted by family members. For people who say, "So, they're with family," Perez has a sobering statistic. "In those family member abductions alone, two children are murdered every day." The figures are from the U. S. Department of Justice and are seven years old. The number may be higher now, she says.

Perez admits that there are some cases where a mother takes her kids and runs away from an abusive situation. "But there are many other cases where parents want revenge," she says.

May 25 is National Missing Children's Day. In her newsletter, Perez urges everyone, "Turn on your porch light, lighting the way until they all come home."

Perez is the nonsalaried director of MAC Watch. The board of directors includes Jacque Rider, a corporate attorney for Silicon Graphics, and Greg Morrill and Randy Andrews, both San Jose police officers. To contact the organization, call 867-1467.