Around 1800 people including the Premier, politicians, police, personalities, pet, parents and kids today pounded the 3.5 kilometres of pavement from Woombye to Palmwoods in the annual Day for Daniel walk.
What began as a simple walk, attended by 90 people, to focus attention on the 2003 disappearance of 13 year old Daniel Morcombe, has now spread to a national day of action to raise awareness of child safety involving over a million people and over 2000 schools.
The discovery and recovery of Daniel Morcombe’s remains together with the arrest and charging of a person with Daniel’s murder in August has generated additional interest in this year’s Day and Walk for Daniel.
Participating in the Walk today, Premier Anna Bligh said,
The Premier also praised the Morcombe’s involvement in raising the awareness of child safety and their ongoing role in the education process.
“I am very pleased that Bruce and Denise Morcombe accepted roles as ambassadors for child safety in our schools. They have done a mighty job in schools right through the state and I know from many people that their visits to our schools have been very successful. We are working with the Foundation now on curriculum in time for implementation next year in a number of year levels across primary schools. So out of all of this tragedy we hope that some very strong lessons are learnt and that we can keep more children safer in the future.”
For the Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson there have always been two burning questions. Where is Daniel? and Who is responsible? In acknowledging that this year there are potential answers to these two questions, Commissioner Atkinson reflected any personal satisfaction to the acknowledgement of the many that have been involved in both bringing a person before the courts and in locating Daniel’s remains.