By William Kenny
Times Staff Writer
Mike and Sue Tuckerman owe a lifetime of gratitude to a certain stranger who found their son Mike after the 9-year-old had wandered off into the woods one day last May.
The Tuckermans are the parents of three boys, including autistic twins Mike and Eddie and their brother Tim. When Mike disappeared, the couple discovered his absence from the back yard of their Somerton home within minutes. Yet, by that time, the active youngster was well into his journey.
Father and mother immediately began to search the woods that extend for hundreds of yards behind their home. They rounded up local relatives and neighbors to aid the effort. Even some strangers joined in as they crossed paths with the search party.
“A lot of people came out of the woodwork to help,” Mike Tuckerman said.
After about 45 minutes, one of the selfless volunteers found the missing boy safe and sound. But for Mike’s parents, getting over the episode wasn’t so easy. It forced them to confront the potential reality of their darkest fears.
“Once he was found, it became a life-changing event,” Mike Tuckerman said.
Since then, the couple have channeled their energies into preventing local families from enduring similar ordeals. By creating the Philadelphia chapter of the Project Lifesaver Foundation, they hope to outfit at-risk “wanderers” in the community with radio transmitter wristbands that will enable local police to find them if they go missing.
Wanderers may be autistic people or those with Down syndrome, Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, developmental disabilities, brain injuries or other conditions.
Not all folks with those diagnoses have tendencies to wander, but many do. The tracking devices supplied by Project Lifesaver, and logistical protocols coordinated by the organization, greatly increase the chances that a missing-person search will result in a successful outcome.
Founded in 1999 by the Chesapeake (Va.) Sheriff’s Office, the non-profit Project Lifesaver now is an international organization with partner agencies in 42 states and Canada serving more than 500 communities.
Before the Tuckermans looked into starting a chapter in Philadelphia, the closest one was in Allentown. Mike Tuckerman found the program on the Internet while searching for a device to reduce the risk of his son getting lost again.
In the months after the younger Mike’s disappearance, his parents tried a couple of different home-based locator systems, but the results were poor.
“They were unreliable,” Mike Tuckerman said. “The alarm wouldn’t go off when it should have, and then the alarm would go off when Mikey was right next to us.”
Conversely, the strength of the equipment used by Project Lifesaver is its simplicity. The individual transmitters are about the size of a wristwatch. They include a watertight case and soft band.
Because the users wear the devices all the time, the bands need to be replaced, along with the transmitter batteries, every month.
Meanwhile, participating law enforcement agencies get a set of portable receivers. When someone goes missing, a receiver is brought to the person’s last-known location. The range of the system is about a mile, so time is critical. Searchers try to close in on the subject by car or helicopter, if necessary. When the signal gets stronger, they usually finish the search on foot.
Since the founding of the program, participants have brought more than 1,600 missing persons to safety. The average search is 30 minutes. The program has never had a fatality, according to Tuckerman.
During his research of the program, the father soon realized how valuable it could be to Philadelphia. There are about 35,000 reported Alzheimer’s cases in the city, he said. Meanwhile, research has shown that about one in 150 children nationally is autistic.
“My initial concern was my own family,” Mike Tuckerman said. “But then as I started talking to other families and hearing about their loved ones who went missing and never came back, I realized there were a lot of people with the same concerns.”
Tuckerman offers particular credit to City Councilman Jack Kelly, Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) and Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey for helping get the program off the ground.
Last August, the father went door to door in City Hall to pitch the idea to anyone willing to listen. The public-private partnership is a key element to the program.
Kelly was the first to express a keen interest in what Tuckerman had to say. The at-large Republican also happens to live a couple of blocks away from Tuckerman, although the two had not met previously.
After a lunch meeting at Benny the Bum’s, Kelly helped Tuckerman get in touch with then-Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson and officials from the city’s Department of Human Services.
Johnson liked the idea but was about to retire, so he advised Tuckerman to wait until a new commissioner was in place. The parent met Ramsey in February.
“He understood the value of it right away,” Tuckerman said, “not just its importance for the safety factor, but also for the economic factor for the city.”
Missing-person searches routinely cost municipalities tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of dollars. When young Mike Tuckerman disappeared, for instance, the police department was about to mobilize special units, including its own helicopter, to support the search. Fortunately, the boy turned up quickly.
“The money saved in manpower alone can pay for the project,” Tuckerman said.
The IBEW, meanwhile, fronted the new chapter $25,000 to pay for the initial equipment, including four receivers and 10 wristband transmitters, as well as training police in using the receivers and covering the promotional expenses.
Participating families are asked to give $300 to enroll in the program, along with a $10 monthly donation that offsets the costs of transmitter maintenance. Each month, volunteers from Education Works, a division of AmeriCorps, will visit each household to replace the transmitter batteries and wristbands, if needed.
Eligible families who can’t afford the donation will be furnished the devices at a discount or for free. Transmitters remain the property of the foundation and are to be returned when no longer in use.
The program isn’t online yet. The police department must send a letter to the national foundation to formally express its willingness to participate. Tuckerman hopes that the necessary training will take place by the end of the summer and that a 90-day pilot program with five families will start in the fall. ••
Those wishing to contribute to Project Lifesaver or apply for participation in the program can call 215-698-3161 or visit www.philadelphiaprojectlifesaver.com for more information.
Reporter William Kenny can be reached at 215-354-3031 or bkenny@phillynews.com