FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – 12/28/07

FIND JALIEK TASK FORCE

A task force has been created to help find Jaliek Rainwalker, the 12 year-old boy who disappeared from Greenwich, NY on November 1, 2007.  It is made up of three foster families; the foster family that had Jaliek most recently; the family that had him the longest; and the family that had him the earliest.  In addition, Jaliek’s maternal grandparents, Barbara Reeley and Dennis Smith of Poestenkill will be an integral part of the task force.  The families are Elaine and Tom Person of Altamont, Jodi and Larry Schoen of Clifton Park and Joy Purdy of Colonie.  At least one of these families or another have known and loved Jaliek continuously since he was two years-old until the night he disappeared.

Our mission will be:

We will do whatever it takes to find Jaliek Rainwalker,

shed a positive light on foster care and adoption,

and petition for needed resources for adoptive families.

Our concern is that the public image of foster care and adoption may become tainted by the news coverage of Jaliek’s disappearance.

Our goals are to:

FIND JALIEK

Share the joys of foster parenting and adopting older children

Improve resources and funding for post adoption services

Institute some kind of oversight by government agencies for families who have adopted hard-to-place children

Provide public events to keep community and media attention on Jaliek’s disappearance

Generate love, prayers and positive energy from all over the world and direct it toward Jaliek wherever he may be.

A website is currently under construction.  It will contain up-to-date information on the efforts currently underway by law enforcement agencies, task force projects and plans, and links to other websites and blogs devoted to finding Jaliek. 

The website is: www.findjaliek.org

In addition, a toll-free number has been set-up for the task force.  This will be used to contact the task force about upcoming events and projects.

It is: 1-877-4JALIEK (1-877-452-5435)

Elaine Person will be taking a leave of absence from her job as executive director of a small non-profit organization.  She will head up the “Find Jaliek Task Force”.  Elaine said,  “This is a decision my husband and I have made together because of the amount of time needed to arrange future events and organize the ongoing reward efforts as well as the time to maintain the associated media contacts and websites. We feel this will allow us to maximize our efforts to find Jaliek.”

On January 1, 2008, the two-month anniversary of Jaliek Rainwalker’s disappearance, a press conference will be held by the three foster families that took care of Jaliek for the six days before he disappeared and almost six years before he went to live with Jocelyn McDonald and Stephen Kerr.  It will be held at 11:00am at the Washington Square Deli in the center of Greenwich, the hometown of Jaliek.  The press conference will contain announcements about upcoming events and a new reward.