FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – 1/24/08

Find Jaliek Task Force Announcements

The Find Jaliek Task Force is creating a database for area residents that are willing to volunteer to help search for Jaliek Rainwalker as soon as the weather and other conditions are right to begin searching again.  Jaliek Rainwalker disappeared eleven weeks ago on November 2^nd after spending the night alone with his adopted father, Stephen Kerr at the empty Hill Street, Greenwich, NY home of Kerr’s father.   Jaliek has not been seen since.

The database will contain a list of volunteers who are willing to be contacted when the need for volunteer searchers arises.  Volunteers must be physically able to participate in lengthy searches into wooded areas under the supervision of law enforcement officials.  The task force is also seeking volunteers with rescue or search dogs.

The Find Jaliek Task Force has a form on its website, www.findjaliek.org which volunteers are asked to fill out and submit.  Once a search is planned, volunteers will be contacted by phone to request their availability.  If you have any questions regarding this project, please contact the task force, toll-free at 1-877-4-JALIEK.

The next addition to the www.findjaliek.org website is an Anonymous Tip Page.  This will allow the public to submit anonymous tips to provide any information that could help find Jaliek Rainwalker.  The site has a provision for the person providing the tip to be eligible for reward money by use of a confidential code.

Several Gospel Church Choirs and Soloists from the Albany area have come together to provide an exciting evening of Gospel music to benefit the Find Jaliek Reward Fund.  The Gospel Concert will be held at the “The Linda”, the WAMC Performing Arts Building at 318 Central Avenue in Albany at 6:00pm on Saturday, February 9^th.  Admission is free, but there will be a free will love offering.

The following day, on Sunday, February 10^th from 1:00 to 2:30pm, the Find Jaliek Task Force will host a “Meet the Author” session with author, playwright and screenwriter, Stephen Gnojewski.  Mr. Gnojewski is an author, screenwriter and playwright of Documentary Theatre who is living in Jersey City, New Jersey and working in New York City.  He received an M.F.A. from the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University.

The book he is writing, tentatively titled “An Inconvenient Child - A Story of the Life and Disappearance of Jaliek Rainwalker” will be co-written by Alex S. DeFazio, MFA.  Mr. DeFazio is also an author, playwright and screenwriter currently living in Jersey City, New Jersey and working in New York City.  He received a B.A. in English and Drama from SUNY Purchase and an M.F.A. in Playwriting from Columbia University.

 “This is a tale of a beautiful, intelligent and loving child; born to a drug-addicted mother on the floor of his grandmother’s kitchen; shuttled through a series of seven foster and adoptive homes; only to disappear at the young age of twelve in a mysterious case fraught with strange and inexplicable clues.”

The “Meet the Author” event will be held at the Greenwich VFW Hall on Abeel Avenue.  The authors would like to invite family members, friends, aquaintances and members of the community to send stories and anecdotes about their relationship and contacts with Jaliek over the past 12 years.  It is hoped that these stories will be included in the book.

Due to the numerous requests for information about the Jaliek Rainwalker case, the task force has created a new section of the website called “What the Police Know”.  It is a listing of various factual statements, all of which have been reported to the police.  Some you may already know about and some may be new to you.  They will be placed on our website for the public to see.  Almost all of these have appeared in the newspapers and reported in radio and television interviews. However, unless you have knowledge of 100% of the coverage, including what ends up on the cutting room floor, you may be surprised at some of what you read.

This part is presented to you for informational purposes and as an announcement of new information available on our website, www.findjaliek.org.