SARASOTA — It’s been five years since Carlie Brucia was reported missing.
But the 11-year-old girl is still remembered every year when parents bring their children to the Kids Safety Rally at the church where her body was found among the brush and Brazilian pepper plants in the back.
“It has been five years. (Being alert) never stops. You have to be vigilant,” said Central Church of Christ Pastor Rod Myers, one of the organizers for the rally Saturday afternoon.
An estimated 2,000 people attended the rally this year, where there were nearly 50 different vendors from various organizations set up offering information and services, said Kathleen O’Leary, an organizer for the event.
Information was provided for parents and children on self-defense should a stranger try to abduct them. The rally, which is in its fifth year, has expanded to encompass children’s safety in drug prevention education, teen driving, online safety, bus stop safety, fire safety and child IDs.
O’Leary said this fall there will be 5-year-olds boarding school buses for the first time. They weren’t alive when Carlie disappeared. They don’t remember the awareness her death brought to families in the area.
She hopes events like the rally will teach them and their families about safety.
“We don’t want what happened to Carlie to happen to anyone ever again,” O’Leary said. “People go into high alert when something like this happens and then they become relaxed. . . . As parents we need to make (children) aware of dangerous situations, but it’s our job to keep them out of those situations.”
Joseph P. Smith, 42, who was convicted of kidnapping, raping and killing Carlie, appealed for a new trial last month. Smith is in a maximum security prison and faces the death penalty. He was convicted in 2005 after he abducted Carlie behind a car wash as she was walking home from a friend’s house.
Robin Jones of Sarasota attended the event with her husband and 4-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter.
“It’s just good to be informed about different programs available and for kids to be safe. Some of the information I already knew,” she said. “There were some things we learned.”
Her family, who attended the event for the first time, gleaned self-defense tactics.
“They now know if someone goes to grab your arm, you spin away,” she said, demonstrating the windmill.
Karen Bedsole, 29, of Sarasota, brought two of her young sons to the event.
“I feel they need to learn about safety and how to protect themselves in the environment they are in,” she said.
Bedsole picked up Angel bracelets, disposable bracelets that allow parents to write their phone numbers on them in the event they are separated from children.
“It makes is easier to reunite with them if they have your cell phone number,” she said.
The rally, which was free to the public, accepted donations toward Carlie’s garden, planted in her memory at the spot where her body was found.
Donations for the garden can be sent to Central Church of Christ, c/o Carlie’s Garden, 6221 Proctor Road, Sarasota, FL 34241. Checks can be made out to the church.
Beth Burger, criminal justice reporter, can be reached at 708-7919.
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