Montana DOJ announces National Missing Children's Day poster contest

Press release 

HELENA — The Montana Department of Justice and the Office of Public Instruction are working together to give Montana students the opportunity to participate in state and national poster contests which focus on the theme of “Bring Our Missing Children Home.”

“This program will allow Montana fifth-graders to compete in state and national poster contests while giving schools the opportunity to teach students about personal safety,” said Joni Turpin of DOJ’s Missing Person’s Clearinghouse. “We know Montana has very talented fifth-graders, and we hope one of them wins a trip to Washington, D.C.” 

The national poster contest winner, along with his/her parents and teacher, will be awarded a trip to Washington, D.C., to participate in the National Missing Children’s Day ceremony in May.

  Posters must be original, handcrafted artwork; 8 ½ x 14 inches in size, with the words “Bring Our Missing Children Home” appearing on the poster.  Posters with digitally produced images, collages, cut-outs, and stamping will not be accepted.  Poster artwork will be judged on originality, creativity, use of color and materials, and reflection of contest theme.

  A written poster contest student application form must be submitted along with each poster.  The application will be judged on the level of understanding of the subject, clarity and grammar appropriate for the fifth grade.  The application form is available at https://dojmt.gov/missing-persons/.

  The student winning the state contest will attend an award ceremony with Attorney General Tim Fox in Helena and receive a $100 cash prize.  The winning Montana poster will then be submitted to the national contest.

  Montana has been participating in the annual national “Bring Our Missing Children Home” poster contest since 2009.  The 2017 state contest winner was Michael Faccenda from Lincoln Elementary School in Great Falls.  To view his winning poster, visit https://dojmt.gov/missing-persons/.  This website also allows the public to see a list of the persons currently missing in Montana and to get more information on Montana’s AMBER Alert and Missing Persons programs.  The Montana Missing Persons Clearinghouse and the Montana AMBER Alert Program are operated by the Division of Criminal Investigation at the Montana Department of Justice.

  Since 2003, the Montana Department of Justice has issued 34 AMBER Alerts. All 49 children involved were located; tragically, four of them were deceased. In 2016, Montana begin using CodeRED mobile app alert to issue AMBER Alerts.  

Posters and student application forms must be received by Feb. 9. People should send them to:

Montana Department of Justice

Missing Persons Clearinghouse

2225 11th Avenue

PO Box 201406

Helena, MT  59620