Music artists team up to create a music video that showcases photos of missing children based on your zip code.
According to Washington, D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department, over 2,000 kids are reported missing every year in the nation’s capital. Sadly, this is an issue that affects the entire nation. In fact, an average of over 400,000 kids are reported missing annually in the United States, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), a nonprofit right outside of D.C. whose mission is to “help find missing children, reduce child sexual exploitation, and prevent child victimization.”
The NCMEC teamed up with a group of music artists to remix a song called “Runaway Train,” originally produced 25 years ago with artist Soul Asylum, featuring photos of missing kids. The remix featured artists Jamie N Commons, Skyler Grey, and Gallant. The revamp not only featured an updated sound, but it also featured an upgrade in technology. The music video will change the photos of the missing kids based on the zip code of the viewer. NCMEC’s thought behind this was because statistically 61 percent of missing kids that are recovered usually are found in the state they disappeared from.
“Technology always saves the day in the end. You got so much digital fingerprints that’s out there and stuff you can use to locate missing people now. You got to use every tool," said Henderson Long, a D.C. local and longtime advocate of finding missing kids. “I had a niece that went missing. And when she went missing, I had to get out on foot. Get the photo out there, keep the conversation going ... You do it on social media. You do it out in the community.”
Long plans to share the new music video on social media and believes it’s a powerful tool to raise awareness of missing kids in D.C.
To find out more about the great work the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is doing to find missing kids, please visit their website.