NORTON SHORES, Mich.- They don’t know Jessica Heeringa and they had never met her family until her abduction. But, Leah Conley and Carrie Mitchell have one mission and that’s to bring Jessica Heeringa home.
Mitchell says, “Everyday we are not only taking care of the Facebook page, but we’re making calls to different businesses that can help us, calling advertising, billboard companies, magazine companies – anything that we can do to get the name out there.”
The two run the Find Jessica Heeringa Facebook Page which has more than 12,000 ‘Likes’. They also organized last week’s candle light vigil and are launching a new campaigned called ‘One Mission-One Hundred Miles.’
Mitchell says, “We’re putting fliers into sheet protectors. So, you can pull up to the command center and we will tape a flier that is already protected onto your vehicle.”
Their goal is to reach everyone within 100 miles of the Norton Shores gas station Jessica was abducted from.
They each have three children, Conley works two jobs. Still, the high school classmates sleep in shifts, updating the Facebook page and working to spread the word through fliers and newspapers.
Conley says, “No, I didn’t know Jessica, I feel like I’m so close to her and I can’t wait to meet her, I think about that every night.”
Because Leah and Carrie say, they love Jessica and her family as if they were their own.
Mitchell told the family, “It’s our job to do whatever we can do to make things out there a little easier.”
The two moms plan to continue One Mission, working to empower women, teach them to stay safe and working to find Jessica.
Conley says, “There’s so much hope that she is just somewhere and it’s just going to take the right person and the right time, and they’re going to find her. That’s what I think about every night when I go to bed and every morning when I wake up.”
There is a fundraiser Saturday at the Little Brown Jug in Fruitport. There will be raffles, music and food. All donations go to support the search to find Jessica.
