Missing Children’s Group Files Chapter 11

Thu., Jan. 30, 1997

Compiled From Wire Services

Declining donations have led to a bankruptcy petition by a national missing children’s organization based here.

Operation Lookout National Center for Missing Youth has filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy for reorganization and protection from creditors.

“This was the best way to keep the mission alive,” said Melody Gibson, who founded the non-profit operation with her husband, Mike, in 1984. “It would’ve been easier to close the door.”

She said the group had a high success rate, resolving 1,345 of 1,694 cases since 1984, ranging from runaways to abductions by non-custodial parents, but was hard-hit by a nationwide decrease in charitable donations last summer.

Some employees have been laid off, the operation has moved to a less expensive location and a new professional fund-raiser has been hired, she added.

Families relying on the operation for resources and emotional support are not charged any fees. The Gibsons accept any case in which a child under 18 is missing.

Out of each dollar in donations, about 75 cents goes to services and the rest to administrative costs and fund raising, according to documents filed in July with the state secretary of state’s office.

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