Raising awareness of missing children is the ever-present mission of the Missing Children’s Network. However, in a culture in which only a few missing children ever make headlines, raising and maintaining awareness of their plights is a constant challenge.

As part of its mandate, the organization uses whatever appropriate vehicles it has at its disposal to tell the stories of the missing.

Our challenge was to develop a long-term platform to facilitate interaction between the Missing Children’s Network and the public, while raising awareness of, and honouring, the missing.

Our task was not just to find a medium that could reach all Canadians, but one that could literally become the message.

So what if we could put such an important group of Canadians – missing and exploited children – on a stamp?

From this creative thought, MissingKidsStamps.ca was born. The stamps provided the perfect platform to spread awareness and honour the missing.

In May 2013, pulling from actual Missing Children case files, we created an immersive web site to tell the stories of a dynamically updated selection of thousands of children presently listed as missing in Canada. While on-site, visitors could learn more about some of the children being featured and follow a seamless two-step process to create their own customized Canada Post stamps featuring the faces of missing children.

To make sure no one was excluded from participating, the site also featured an ‘e-signature’ option, allowing more tech-savvy visitors to add Missing Kids Stamps to their e-mails and other e-correspondence.

In April 2014, to bring further awareness of the stamps, we created an interactive poster installation that was affixed to the window of a busy Toronto hotel and restaurant. Passers-by could remove their own Missing Kid Stamp from the poster which had the photo of an actual missing child underneath.

As our message of hope spread, people began to take notice. Featured in a number of prestigious publications, Missing Kids Stamps began to shine a spotlight where it is so desperately needed.

As Pina Arcamone, Director General of the Missing Children’s Network, movingly explains, “This small gesture is a reminder to those families that while their children may still be missing, they are not forgotten.”

MissingKidsStamps.ca is still up and running, and with over 5000 stamps already ordered, the faces of those missing are finding their way into mailboxes and inboxes across the country.