Award-winning design by Audrey Link
When National Missing Children’s Day is recognized on May 25th, a Tampa area fifth-grader will be in the national and state spotlight for her award-winning design.
Audrey Link, a student at Resurrection Catholic School in Lakeland, is the winner of both the Florida and national Missing Children’s Day poster contests.
Audrey swept both contests with her intriguing colored pencil design, which shows a mom and dad reaching to hold the hands of their missing child, who can only be seen in her shadow.
“When I was brainstorming ideas I looked at last year’s winner and immediately thought shadows,” said Audrey. “I created this idea for my poster through a simple sketch. Afterword I thought of other goods ideas, but I ended up on this one. As you look at the picture, you should think of them once having a memory with a child, but now their child is missing.”
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s Missing Endangered Persons Information Clearinghouse sponsors the contest in Florida and submitted Audrey’s 2017 winning poster to the Department of Justice Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, which sponsors the contest nationally.
The poster contest was organized to raise awareness of child safety and demonstrate the collaboration of various agencies to bring missing children home safely. The annual theme of National Missing Children’s Day is “Bringing Our Missing Children Home.”
Audrey has received an invitation to Tallahassee’s program and events recognizing Missing Children’s Day September 11th as well as an invitation to Washington, D.C., for the National Missing Children’s Day in May. Her poster will be used by DOJ and on billboards throughout the state via a partnership with the Florida Outdoor Advertising Association.
