PETALUMA, Calif. (AP) Ten years ago, Petaluma's country calm
was shattered when a violent parolee broke into the bedroom of
Polly Klaas and stole away the 12-year-old girl, along with a
community's peace of mind.
On Wednesday, some of the people who helped search for Polly
paused to remember their loss and take stock of the campaign to
help other missing children that has been waged in her name.
``Ten years ago today, I was a desperate man,'' Polly's father,
Marc Klaas, said to about 75 volunteers and others involved in the
case who gathered in downtown Petaluma. ``We ... were a very
frightened family. You gave us hope and you gave us strength to
endure.''
Polly was kidnapped from her bedroom as she played with two
girlfriends at a slumber party on Oct. 1, 1993.
The attack, made while Polly's mother, Eve Nichol, slept in the
next room, galvanized this city of about 45,000 residents. Within
days, hundreds of volunteers had set up a search center standard
procedure now, but then unprecedented.
Meanwhile, the circumstances of Polly's case two sheriff's
deputies encountered her kidnapper that night but didn't know a
manhunt was under way emphasized the need for speed in getting
out information about child abductions.
Today, officials in California and other states broadcast
information about missing children on radio, TV and roadside signs
under the Amber Alerts named after Amber Hagerman, a 9-year-old
Texas girl kidnapped and murdered in 1996.
In late November 1993, authorities caught up with Davis and in
December he led them to Polly's body.
It was a heartbreaking end to the case. But some of the
volunteers decided to keep working, forming the Polly Klaas
Foundation to help other missing children.
On Wednesday, the foundation announced it was donating $40,000
to help provide child safety training to Petaluma children between
ages 5 and 10, under a national program called radKIDS (Resist
Aggression Defensively).
The foundation plans to train 36 instructors in its first year
and hopes to offer the program at schools and other child-centered
agencies.
Marc Klaas, who is not involved with the Polly Klaas Foundation
and has his own nonprofit, the KlaasKids Foundation, announced
Wednesday he is opening a new center in Florida that will help
coordinate searches for missing children. In another initiative,
his Web site has been translated into Spanish.
Klaas spoke in front of the Polly Hannah Klaas Performing Arts
Center, a 1910 building in downtown Petaluma that was named after
Polly but later had to be closed because it was unsafe. Civic
officials are trying to raise money for repairs, which could cost
$1 million, and are just under halfway to their goal.
Family members say having a theater under Polly's name would be
a sweet tribute she loved drama and music.
Klaas and Nichol divorced when Polly was a toddler, but she
often visited Klaas and his then-fiancee, now wife, Violet.
In a recent interview, Klaas said some of his best memories come
from the near-daily phone conversations he had with Polly. Klaas
said his last goodbye to Polly on one of those phone calls, though
he didn't know it then.
One thing he's grateful for ``is that I always ended every
conversation by telling her that I loved her. So that the last
thing I ever said to her was that I loved her.''
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On the Net:
http://www.pollyklaas.org
http://www.klaaskids.org
http://www.radkids.org/
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)