A sad 10-year anniversary

It will be 10 years tomorrow since sweet little 9-year-old Amber Hagerman went for a bike ride and never returned. A neighbor heard her scream and saw her thrown into a pickup. The neighbor called police, but this was before we broadcast child abductions and information was out to the public too late to save Amber. She was found dead four days later and the rapist/murderer has never been caught.

Out of the tragedy was born the Amber Plan in which child abductions are announced almost immediately with vehicle descriptions and info about the missing child and suspected assailant. Because of this, many more children are found alive. I still get a sick feeling in my stomach when I hear that sound announcing an Amber Alert is coming, but it also makes me turn up the radio and listen and pay more attention to my surroundings.

Radio Shack and Cingular Wireless have launched a campaign to sign up 1 million new wireless Amber Alerts subscribers in 2006, the companies said Tuesday.

If you're a Cingular customer or subscribe to one of the participating carriers there is NO COST to sign up. You can sign up to get the Amber Alert Text Messages on your cell phone here. I've already signed up.

Go hug your kids a little tighter and sign up for the text messages.