Clear Channel Outdoor Americas Joins the Family of Missing Houston Area Child, Evanegelys Colon, in Digital Billboard Campaign, to Generate Leads in Disappearance.
Texas Center for the Missing and Clear Channel Outdoor Americas (CCOA) will launch a new month-long effort across Houston to help generate leads in the case of Evanegelys Colon, a 16 year old who disappeared in April 2019. The billboard message will feature Evanegelys’ photo. Evanegelys was involved in a car accident with a stolen car. She was admitted to the hospital, but when her mother arrived, she was no longer there. CCOA will broadcast Evanegelys’ photo on its digital billboards throughout the Houston region over 1,200 times per day on each unit for one month.
"They keep the case alive. It's keeping the conversation about these missing children. It's something that unless if affects you directly, you probably don't think about it," said Clear Channel's Lee Vela.
He said the billboards keep the case alive and hopefully make drivers aware and start a conversation that it only takes a few seconds for a child to go missing.
"By having these reminders along the roadways of the Houston area, the hope is to make sure that people can discuss this, talk about it with their children," said Vela.
He said more than 40,000 children are currently missing in Texas.
The Texas Department of Public Safety Missing Persons Clearinghouse received 52,202 missing person reports in 2018 with 40,175 being juveniles. CCOA is providing this month-long public service campaign at no cost in recognition of National Missing Children’s Day May 25th. This is one element of CCOA’s ongoing partnership with Texas Center for the Missing and part of a larger campaign to raise awareness about local missing children in four major Texas markets: Houston, San Antonio, and El Paso. Programs likes these are a reminder to all parents and guardians of the need for high-quality photographs of their children for use in case of an emergency and for the need for everyone to pay close attention to posters and photographs of missing children. iHeart Media Radio Stations will run radio public service announcements for each case in each Texas city.