According to statistics compiled by the Justice Department, nearly 800,000 children (2000 per day) are reported as missing in the United States each year. The overwhelming majority of these cases are, thankfully, resolved within hours, but a small fraction involve longer periods of time in which the lives of both the parent and the child are involuntarily taken from them. Every day that a parent is kept from their child is a day lost, and every day that a child is away from that parent is a day in which a part of childhood is lost. This is the reason for our being. The CMC was founded in 1991 as a one man effort to right these wrongs, and has grown into an organization with the goals that are printed above. They are stated separately but, in truth, they dovetail into one overriding desire— to help those in need and, when possible, to help prevent a parent from ever missing their child.