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Maryland author, child protection advocate and retired Washington, D.C. Police Investigator, Edward Michael Jagen, received the prestigious national Jefferson Awards’ S. Roger Horchow Award for Greatest Public Service by a Private Citizen on Tuesday, June 17, 2008 at 7 p.m. in East Hall, Union Station. Selected by the Jefferson Awards’ board of selectors, Mr. Jagen was chosen for a 2008 Jefferson Award for his distinguished public service career marked by extraordinary leadership, vision and commitment to create the Good Knight Child Empowerment Network, Inc., www.GoodKnight.org which has served America’s families since 1985. The National Jefferson Award was founded in 1972 by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Senator Robert Taft, Jr. and Sam Beard to establish a Nobel Prize for public and community service. Mr. Jagen joins the notable ranks of such past recipients as Payton Manning, Oprah Winfrey, President Jimmy Carter, John D. Rockefeller, Bob Hope, and Supreme Court Judge Sandra Day O’Connor to name a few.
What motivates Mr. Jagen to champion children? “One of my first investigations was to locate a missing six year old. I found her lifeless naked body under a tarp on the roof of an apartment building. The look of terror on her face haunts me 35 years later, but what haunts me more is to know that most crimes against adults and children could be prevented if parents only knew the criminal’s secret which I have now exposed,” Jagen says.
Most recently, Mr. Jagen has written and published the SuperBook of Family Safety, a condensed encyclopedia of safety and home resource guide. Partnering with Maryland’s Governor Martin O’Malley and Maryland State School Superintendent, Dr. Nancy Grasmick, Jagen has launched the Safe and Healthier Communities Initiative, the largest grassroots volunteer effort ever attempted. “This resource is a vital tool that helps us in our efforts towards creating safer and healthier communities throughout Maryland by working to ensure the wellbeing of our loved ones,” writes Governor O’Malley. Dr. Grasmick goes on to write, “My Staff and I have reviewed the SuperBook of Family Safety. We find it to contain some very important, timely, and valuable information that every teacher, student and parent needs to know.”
The partnership will activate over one million volunteer students performing community service by year’s end in every Maryland county. Jagen is seeking concerned citizens and business leaders to sponsor books for schools as part of this back to school initiative in our local county. Call 301-595-8989 or visit www.SuperSafetyProject.com to help support this effort today for a safe and healthier tomorrow.
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