Local officials gathered with advocates for families of missing children to mark the launch of a new program to help find Capital Region missing persons.
At the DeCrescente Distributing Company in Mechanicville, Capital District Republican Assemblyman James Tedisco, Saratoga County District Attorney James Murphy, and others announced “Coasters for Hope,” a new pilot program to help find missing persons in the Capital Region.
Using an idea from Doug and Mary Lyall from the Center for Hope, DeCrescente Distributing Company, which supplies taverns and restaurants, will distribute an initial 5,000 coasters featuring the photographs and information about seven local missing persons, as well as reporting contact information.
The Center for Hope has previously worked with the state Department of Corrections to distribute playing cards featuring information on missing persons within New York’s prison system.
Doug Lyall, whose daughter Suzanne Lyall went missing from the University at Albany in 1998, said the coasters will help reach a wider audience.
“The playing cards went pretty much to inmates and institutions. This is going to out to the general public and high-traffic situations where people get together, socialize, might have an adult beverage, and might be more willing to talk and really pass on that information,” said Lyall.
Assemblyman Tedisco, a longtime advocate for locating missing persons, worked with former New York Governor Mario Cuomo to establish a program to print information on missing children on New York State Thruway toll tickets. Tedisco said he eagerly jumped on the chance to help launch the Coaster for Hope program.
“When Doug and Mary Lyall come to you – and it’s their innovation really – and they said, ‘can you help us get coasters with pictures of missing persons from the Capital Region and start a pilot program?’ I said ‘absolutely’.”
Tedisco hopes that the pilot program launched in the Capital Region can be replicated across New York.
‘This is a pilot program – just seven missing persons from the Capital Region. But what I want to do with DeCrescente is carry this across the state of New York – to make this pilot program a statewide program, the first in the Northeast,” said Tedisco. “So I’ll be contacting my colleagues in the Senate and the Assembly, he’ll be contacting his distributors he knows across the state.”
DeCrescente Distributing President, CJ DeCrescente, said his company will work with participating taverns and restaurants, and revisit the program once the initial 5,000 Coasters for Hope are distributed to see how it can be expanded in the future.
Saratoga County District Attorney James Murphy also urged parents to give their children an extra hug this holiday season, and asked anyone with information on a missing person to step forward and contact authorities.
“If you find some information, please call it in. It’s vital for the families that are searching and have searched for many years,” said Murphy. “We know they’re alive, and we know they’re out there.”
Anyone can submit an anonymous tip about missing persons case, call 1-800-448-3847; text NYMISSING (+Tip) to 274637; or visit www.troopers.ny.gov and click on CrimeTip Link.
