2023 represents the 29th anniversary of the KlaasKids Foundation. KlaasKids was created to give meaning to Polly’s death and to create a legacy in her name that would protect children for generations to come. More than 1.5 million 501 (c)(3) non-profit organizations that have obtained tax-exempt status from the IRS. Many exist in obscurity, but we do not. We pursue our mission of stopping crimes against children in the trenches, courtrooms, television studios, social media sites, and the minds of our volunteers and supporters and I think that the work the KlaasKids Foundation has done on Polly’s behalf has had an influence on our cause.
Search & Rescue: KlaasKids’ Search and Rescue has served 1,351 families of missing persons throughout the United States. We have conducted 438 searches for missing persons around the country and 86-percent have been resolved. KlaasKids has trained more than 1,600 professional search and rescue volunteers. Our team has assisted in the recovery of 73-women and children involved in sex trafficking around the country.
Our Website: Is the Internet’s premiere Megan’s Law destination, offering a comparative analysis and overview of Sex Offender Registration and Community Notification Statutes for each state. We offer a similar service for the Amber Plan; a newsletter anthology; Critical Child Safety Information including how to collect your children’s DNA using household items; critical information on missing children; a legislative overview; and a timely section on Homeland Security.
Our Legislative Efforts: Are comprised of a two-pronged approach toward child safety that addresses front and back end solutions. In order to protect America’s children from the predators who lurk in our shadows we promote efforts that encourage personal accountability throughout the criminal justice system; that strengthen sentences for violent and recidivist offenders; that provide better tools to monitor criminals released back into society and that promote uniform laws that strengthen criminal justice statutes between the states. However, if we do not invest in programs that help children become caring citizens instead of brutal criminals, we will all pay an unfathomable cost in broken lives and broken hearts. Proven prevention programs like Head Start, parenting education, mentoring, job training, good schools, and after-school programs can dramatically reduce crime by helping kids become productive citizens instead of brutal criminals.
Our Public Awareness Campaign: Takes advantage of our ongoing relationship with a number of highly visible media resources to promote our child safety agenda. Foundation representatives have appeared on virtually every network television newsmagazine, syndicated talk show and are regularly called upon as a resource for CNN, FOX, MSNBC and CNBC cable news channels advocating on behalf of missing children, abused children and victim’s rights. We have published numerous editorial opinions for newspapers including the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner, San Diego Union Tribune, Las Vegas Review-Journal, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Portland Oregonian, and Los Angeles Daily News as well as articles in Newsweek Magazine and a profile in GQ Magazine.
Our Homeland Security: Section offers two distinctly crafted workbooks to assist grass roots efforts to create communities safe from the threat of crime and terrorism. Neighborhood Watch is a step-by-step blueprint on how to create and maintain one of the most effective anti-crime and ant-terrorist grass roots programs ever developed. Fight Back: Safeguard Your Community outlines, categorizes and links many of the best ideas, programs and legislation that have been presented to the Foundation over the course of our history.
Our Take Home Child ID Packets: includes a fingerprint ink strip, child safety tips, community action information, a nine-point plan on what to do if your children disappear and can be ordered online for free. One of our first official projects was to distribute 30,000 Take Home Child ID Packets to the children of the Sonoma County School District, where Polly attended school, in 1995.