Foundation Urging Nation to Download Free Stranger Safety Awareness Material

What started out as one man's devotion to help educate locals about stranger safety awareness has grown into a national cause.

Matthew J. Barbis created The Rose Brucia Educational Foundation in response to his cousin's abduction and murder in 2004. His quest has come full circle as Monday will be recognized as National Rose Brucia Stranger Safety Awareness Day.

Barbis is issuing a call to action in honor of the historic day and urging parents, guardians and schools from across the country to go online and download the organizations’ free stranger safety awareness program. It can be accessed by clicking here.

“Every school in the country can go to our website and download the free curriculum we had written with our educational committee,” said Barbis, 39, a Holbrook resident and Sachem High School alum. “Abductions happen every day and it’s not that we have a blind eye towards them, it’s that we have so many. Our goal is to stop that. We want to teach children what to do before there is a problem.”

The foundation has developed shows and vignettes to New York State educational standards and used the Sachem Central School District as a pilot district in the curriculum and DVD program.

"[Matthew] found a way to take a horrific family tragedy and turn it into a program to educate young children and families on methods to prevent abduction," said Sachem Superintendent James Nolan. "He is already making a very positive impact locally, nationally and internationally."

Pat Chierichella, educational chairman for the foundation and a former Sachem teacher, said the curriculum and shows are engaging, authentic and age appropriate.

"We believe they convey a very important message," he said.

Barbis said that of the 800,000 kids that go missing every year, 21,200 are stranger abductions.

When 11-year-old Carlie Brucia was abducted and murdered in Sarasota, Fla. in 2004, her cousin Barbis watched his family undergo the most difficult of pain.

It quickly became a highly publicized story, especially since it was the first abduction caught on camera. Carlie was on the way home from a friend's house and took a short cut behind a car wash.

“By going into every school and teaching the curriculum, we can arm our kids with the necessary tools that they need to recognize an unsafe situation and they’ll be able to run away from it,” Barbis said. “If every community responds, we’ll have our national coverage within days.”