HispanicBusiness

Mark Klaas and Midsi Sanchez have recently made personal appearances in several cities to launch a new smart phone app designed to help parents of missing children sound the alarm.

"Midsi went to Pensacola, Fla. with me for the launch of Polly's Guardian Angel -- a smart phone user-based app," said Klaas, whose 12-year-old daughter Polly was kidnapped from her Petaluma home and murdered in 1991. Klaas said he was a car-rental franchise owner when this life-altering episode struck.

"It was a complete life-changer, it changed everything," Klaas said. "Polly's tragedy gave me a new focus and a different meaning to my life. It's why I started my foundation, though I'd give it back in a heartbeat."

Polly's Guardian Angel app "is pre-populated with information that's distributed to anyone who has the app in a five -mile radius of where the child went missing," Klaas said. "There are also user prompts for what to do if the child has not been located in five minutes, or in 30 minutes -- to make sure you're doing all the right things. There is no doubt in my mind this will save lives at some point."

Launched about six weeks ago, the app has hit some user glitches, which are expected to be ironed out within the month, Klaas said.

Polly's Guardian Angel App officials say:

--It's the first parent-initiated missing child alert system.

--The technology lets parents deploy GPS and social networking to sound the alarm and ask for help from nearby app users.

--It also gives parents access to the Polly Call Center which connects parents to professionals who have been trained to make sure that everything possible is being done to re-connect the parent to their child.

--Parents are offered step-by-step guidance derived from years of experience from searches around the United States.

--Downloadable from iTunes or Android's Play Store, Polly's Guardian Angel purchases help fund the Florida-based Polly Call Center and future enhancements of the app.

Source: Polly's Guardian Angel website