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(Tallahassee, FL) -- Today's Florida Department of Law Enforcement Missing Children’s Day Annual Ceremony has special significance.
The 2025 Florida Missing Children’s Day Ceremony honored the Miami Dade Sheriff's Office Missing person's unit with the FDLE Commissioner's award today in Tallahassee.
FDLE Deputy Director Melissa Bujeda thanks the impacted families, law enforcement officers and citizens who convened to remember Florida's children who are still missing and those who will never come home again.
FDLE commissioner Mark Glass also recognized the other DOJ certified teams with nearly 100-percent recovery rates.
Thursday will mark 30-years since nine-year-old Jimmy Ryce was abducted after he got off his school bus in South Miami-Dade. His body was found three months later.
Jimmy Rice Center Director Mark Young says parents, Don and Claudine Ryce, made it their goal to provide at least one bloodhound to every police department in the country, and so far, they've given out about 750.
Young says coinciding with today's Florida Missing Children’s Day Annual Ceremony in Tallahassee today is training and certification for more than 30 bloodhounds and their handlers from as far away as Minnesota.
The first Florida Department of Law Enforcement Florida Missing Children’s Day Annual Ceremony was September 13, 1999.
"Each year impacted families, law enforcement officers and citizens convene to remember Florida's children who are still missing and those who will never come home again. The objective of this day is to raise awareness of Florida's current missing children, to educate the public on child safety and abduction prevention, and to recognize those individuals who have made outstanding contributions in missing child issues." according to FDLE.