FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – April 9, 2002

Fighter gives heavyweight support to missing children

While appearing on national television this weekend, light heavyweight boxer Derrick Harmon will be champion of an important cause– the search for missing children.

Harmon of Las Vegas will face Glencoffe Johnson at the Hard Rock Live April 14 in Las Vegas in a 10-round light heavyweight fight. The fight will be shown nationally on Fox Sports’ Sunday Night Fights. The fighter and his trainers will wear to the ring the pictures of Ashley Marie Pond and Miranda Diane Gaddis, two young girls missing from Oregon. Child Protection Education of America, a nonprofit missing children organization based in Tampa, will provide the photographs to Harmon.

“This is great exposure for a child to be seen on a national level,” said Vince DiNova, executive director of CPEA. “I know the relatives of these children are very happy for the opportunity and so are we.”

Photograph exposure, which is CPEA’s day-to-day focus, is important because one in six children are found because someone sees their picture. “This is a different avenue for us to reach an audience we wouldn’t normally,” said DiNova. “We thank Derrick for the chance to do this.”

Ashley, 13, disappeared from Oregon City, Oregon, January 9 around 8 a.m. She was last seen wearing blue jeans, white Sketchers shoes and a blue bikini top.

Miranda, 13, disappeared March 8 from the same area. She was last seen wearing a dark blue hooded sweatshirt with "Hurley" in pink letters on the back, blue jeans, and tennis shoes.

Like Ashley, officials say Miranda never made it to school and her classmates say she didn’t get on the bus. Police believe foul play is involved in both cases because of similarities in the cases and because the girls lived in the same apartment complex.

This is the fourth time Harmon has worn the picture of a missing child at a nationally-broadcast event. The pictures will feature CPEA’s toll-free number, 1-866-USA-CHILD, and its Web site address, www.find-missing-children.org.

For more information about the event or CPEA, contact Don Smith at 1-866-USA-CHILD or 813-758-1876. (Note: Photographs of the girls are available upon request.)