03 Sep Kidnapped Cleveland woman throws out Scrappers pitch
By Matt Stone, WFMJ Reporter
NILES, Ohio –
One of the three women kidnapped and held captive inside a Cleveland home for almost ten years made a stop in the valley Tuesday night.
Gina DeJesus was 14 when Ariel Castro kidnapped her and kept her inside a Cleveland home for nearly 10 years before she escaped.
Gina threw out the ceremonial first pitch at Tuesday’s Scrappers game to help raise awareness for a foundation she hopes can really make a difference.
The founder of the BairFind Foundation is a former minor league pitcher who wants to raise awareness for missing children in area cities that have minor league ball parks.
The idea is to put up pictures and profiles of missing children to get more people involved in finding them.
Founder, Dennis Bair says, “The idea is the fans that come in and out of the stadium take a look at the profiles and that’s the solution to finding a missing child. The more eyes looking at the profiles the greater the chance someone is going to recognize that child and make the proper phone call.”
The foundation has been around for 14 years and they’ve helped locate 27 children so far.
Bair says he won’t stop until he finds at least 100.
“In baseball there’s guys out there on base and the object is to step up to the plate and bring them home. When a child goes missing the object of the game is the same. We have to step up to the plate and we have to do what we can do to bring them home.”
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Original article: http://www.wfmj.com/story/29937910/kidnapped-cleveland-woman-throws-out-scrappers-pitch