Project Jason-Voice for the Missing: June 2008

June 13, 2008 marks seven years since the mysterious and tragic disappearance of Jason Jolkowski, the namesake of our organization. His 27th birthday is June 24th. In honor of Jason, his birthday and his generous spirit, we are launching a fundraising campaign. The birthday present image at the bottom of our main site at http://www.projectjason.org/ will be used to show our progress towards the goal of raising $2,700 by October 6th, the 5th anniversary of Project Jason.

You will find a quick reference to Project Jason’s accomplishments and information about how we utilize donations by continuing to scroll down in this thread.

Please feel free to forward this information.

What follows is a letter written by Jason's mother, Kelly, to mark this sad occasion:

Dear Jason,

We love you and miss you. It’s been seven years since we last saw your face and heard your gentle laugh. Wherever you are, you’re now a grown man. You were just a young adult when you were last with us, working to find your place in this life.

The month of June is such a trying time of year. You disappeared without a trace on June 13th, 2001. Sometimes it seems as if it was just yesterday. The great fear and pounding of our hearts when we discovered something was very wrong is a feeling we’ll never forget. We waited and hoped that you’d walk in the door a moment later and that the whole awful event would be over, but that didn’t happen.

Seven years later, it feels as if it never may end, and that we may have to wait for our life after this world to see you again. Even so, we will always have hope to find you sooner, and that you will be with us again. Love always hopes, and we have hearts full of both.

Father’s Day and my birthday were also events of that fateful month, and without you, those dates seemed meaningless.

June 24th is your 27th birthday. It would be so wonderful to be able to buy you a gift and sing Happy Birthday to you, even in our funny, off-key way. There is so much that we’ve all missed. If you are still with us, you could be married and have children. You may have graduated from college and be pursuing a career. So many life events which normally happen with someone of your age may have passed by. We hope and pray that you haven’t been cheated of the life you were meant to live.

We feel that somehow, you are aware of how life has changed for us in your absence. Your little brother has grown up now and works with your dad. He misses you so.

Because of you, we were called to reach out and help others who have fallen victim to this tragic circumstance. We passed a law in your name here in Nebraska, and then we created a nonprofit organization named after you, Project Jason. We’ve helped find other missing people, including a son who was missing for 14 years, and a sister missing for seven. We wish we could find you, but rest assured son, we won’t stop trying.

We were blessed to have you with us for nineteen years. You taught us so much, especially about generosity and kindness. You never told us these things, but we found out from those who knew you. You took it upon yourself to help a handicapped boy at school to get from class to class. You sang a rap in front of the whole school to help your friend get elected to the student council, even though you are shy and quiet. We saw for ourselves how you would literally run to open the door for elderly people, or help someone across the street. Because of these things and more, we know you would want us to do the work we do to help other families of missing persons.

In honor of your 27th birthday, and we know you would approve, we are asking for donations to your name sake organization. It’s been a struggle these past seven years without you, and also in founding the organization and accomplishing what we know we could. With the support of others who care, we will achieve more for these suffering families and help to reunite them with their missing loved ones.

We’re going to ask, dear Jason, that each person reading this consider donating $27 in your name to Project Jason. Realizing there are many who truly can’t afford to do this, perhaps some who can, will donate an additional $27. We have a goal to reach $2,700 by October 6th, which will be the 5th anniversary of the founding of Project Jason.

For those who wish to help, they can mail their donation to Project Jason, PO Box 3035, Omaha, NE 68103, OR go to our website, www.projectjason.org, and click on the PayPal button at the bottom of the page. We’ll also show the progress towards the October goal on the “birthday present” image shown on the bottom of the main page of our website.

It will be wonderful to be able to affect even more families in your name, Jason. The greatest gift of all would be to have you back in our lives, but if that is not to be, we will continue on with our work with the help and support of the kind people of the world, people just like you.

Love Always,

Mom, Dad, and Michael