PA. to put missing children posters in turnpike plazas
Pennsylvania to put missing children posters in turnpike plazas Friday October 21, 2005 GREENSBURG, Pa. (AP) Hoping to take advantage of the millions of travelers who stop at the Pennsylvania Turnpike's 21 service plazas each year, the state plans to begin posting pictures of missing children in the facilities. Working with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, the state expects to have the first posters up in plazas within a week, becoming the first state to regularly dedicate space to information on missing children. ``It's an exciting new opportunity to provide these photographs to an entire new set of eyes,'' David Shapiro, spokesman for the NCMEC, said Friday. ``The more people who see them increases the chances these kids will be found.'' The idea to display the posters titled ``Picture Them Home,'' along with contact information if a person spots a child, came from a Turnpike employee. The NCMEC wants Pennsylvania to serve as a model as it approaches other states with the idea, and hopes to add posters to service plazas all over the country. Pennsylvania may later expand its program to state highways, administrative offices, maintenance sheds, state police barracks and toll plazas. CBS 3