When it comes to helping missing children, Cinda Lubich has nearly done it all. She's the Illinois AMBER Alert Coordinator, Missing Person Clearinghouse Director and the chair of I-SEARCH, the Inter-State Enforcement Agencies for the Recovery of Children, a network that includes representatives from 13 states.

This amounts to an enormous amount of work for Lubich because Illinois has approximately 40,000 children go missing each year—but her work doesn't end there. When parents or law enforcement officers call the toll-free missing children line after hours, Lubich takes the call.

Her voice cracked with emotion as she explained why she takes on so much. “It's the phone calls of appreciation from parents and police officers when a kid comes home—just knowing that I made a difference,” she said.

Lubich said her work hits close to home because she is the mother of five children and grandmother of four. “I do it because I'm a parent and I think parents deserve help,” she said.

In 2002, Lubich helped set up the Illinois AMBER Alert Plan—a difficult task since Illinois was only the fifth state to have a plan. “Like many states we learned the hard way,” she said.

Initially, they planned to send the alerts over the EAS system but found out that only the governor could use EAS. Then they tried to send the alerts through a mass fax but that did not work very well. Finally, they partnered with NOAA Weather Radio through the National Weather Service to contact broadcasters and are still using that method to this day.

The following year Lubich worked with Illinois legislators to pass a law that would enhance the state AMBER Alert Plan, including: a task force with representatives from 13 agencies that meets quarterly to monitor and review how the state AMBER Alert Plan is working; community outreach through public service announcements, billboards and even phone directories; ongoing education for school children on how to protect themselves from abductors; and law enforcement instruction including videos, computer-based training, and wallet information cards. Soon all 102 counties will have their own AMBER Alert liaison to get training.

Lubich credits the task force with the success Illinois has had with AMBER Alerts. The state's first AMBER Alert success story is still etched in her memory. A 14-year-old boy told friends he was leaving the library with his uncle. The “uncle” turned out to be a registered sex offender, and the child was saved after a citizen heard the AMBER Alert, spotted the suspect's vehicle on the interstate, and called 911. “It worked the way it is supposed to work,” she said. “We reached out to the public and the public pulled through for us.”

Cinda said the AMBER Alert has also been an important tool in shedding light on the work and resources available at missing person clearinghouses, and “people finally know we're here.” However, she is worried that alerts will lose their credibility if proper criteria are not met or police officers do not receive ongoing training.

After working 27 years for the state of Illinois and for the past decade on missing children’s issues, Cinda said she will retire one day, but she won't quit. “I'll probably do what I do now from home and do it for nothing,” she said. “I see myself being involved with child issues the rest of my life.”