YORK, Maine - "Every child is important. Every child is at risk."
Magi Bish, the parent of a teenage daughter murdered in 2000, imparted that message to a group of sniffling, even openly crying, parents during a moving one-hour talk at York Public Library Tuesday night.
In the background was a portable wall of pictures of children from New England states who are missing - some dating back more than 30 years, some as fresh as last month.
"We must say, ‘No more,’" said Bish, whose 16-year-old daughter, Molly, disappeared in June 2000. "We must take our children back. Molly is on every face of every child I see. Hug your child. We all have a Molly in our lives. If we all do something collectively, we will create an energy to combat evil."
Bish was invited to speak at the request of York group Compassion 4 Children, which works to prevent violence against children in town. She and her husband, John, have become advocates for missing children since their daughter’s disappearance, founding the Molly Bish Foundation to give out child identification kits to parents and talking about missing children. John Bish was scheduled to appear Tuesday night, but had to be elsewhere.
Magi Bish
Teenage daughter, Molly Bish, was killed in 2000
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"When I see the name ‘Compassion 4 Children,’ I can’t help but be touched, because that’s what it’s all about," Bish said.
She told the group about her "lovely and silly daughter ... from a small town, a safe town with good parents ... who became a victim of a heinous crime."
"There was a nightmare time of dealing with the aftershock, a time when "the questions are unending and the mind never rests. Your head and heart are consumed by evil. You sail adrift on uncharted waters."
Before long, she said, she and her husband realized they needed to "change into advocates for awareness." They fought for laws, including the national Amber Alert law, and joined with other families of missing children.
Finally, three years after her disappearance, Molly’s body was found, and "she came home, bone by bone. First a shin bone, then a skull. Only 26 bones returned.
"Molly is our angel, and she rests on all our shoulders," Bish said. "We are all family and we are all connected."
Also speaking was Stephen Daley, a former Ogunquit police officer and founder of RadKIDS, a self-defense training program for children. Three York police officers are currently trained to offer RadKIDS, said Capt. Kevin LeConte of the York Police Department.
LeConte said York police have a plan to deal with missing-children calls, needed particularly in this tourist town so close to an interstate highway. He said, when a call comes in from a parent saying a child is missing, officers are dispatched to all of the exit roads in town and not to the place where the child was last seen. "The child could be in Portsmouth in 20 minutes," he said.
He encouraged parents to get a identification kits and have an officers fingerprint children professionally. "You keep it safe. We don’t want it. But it needs to be done properly. Every year, take good, quality pictures of your kids. Don’t live in a wonder world, where you think it can’t possibly happen to you, because it does. If we all take a little ownership, we can win."
Bish said later that she was impressed with York’s efforts to bring parent awareness to the issue of child safety. "It’s outstanding to see the community and police work together," she said.
