Hundreds of stuffed animals collected from a vigil for Parker Wells were donated to the Calgary Food Bank on Tuesday. Parker, a non-verbal and autistic 11-year-old, went missing from a day home on July 16, prompting a massive search involving hundreds of police officers and thousands of Calgarians. His body was found nearly two weeks later in a small pipe on the east side of Deerfoot Trail – part of a larger network of pipes and tunnels. “There was a vigil close to where Parker was found that became the site where everybody came to donate flowers and stuffed animals,” Calgary mother Jennifer Ball explained. “A few weeks ago, we went and bagged up a bunch of the stuffed animals – it was over 1,000 – and then Tower Drycleaning donated their drycleaning time; they drycleaned every single stuffed animal.” “We bagged them all up and we have multiple donations.” Of the 1,000 stuffed animals, some 200 were donated to the food bank in Parker’s name on Tuesday. “Parker – I didn’t know him personally – but if you know an Autistic child, you know the joy that comes from them. “I have an Autistic child myself, and he is literally the light of my life – and anyone that meets him – so I feel Parker was probably very similar and touched people in his life.” Melissa From, Calgary Food Bank president and SEO, said the donations will be heading into birthday bags. “For kids between the ages of zero and 12, we provide an age-appropriate birthday gift, and along with that comes cake mix and icing and candles and all the fixings for the family to celebrate that child,” From said. “So, these stuffed animals will go right into the arms of little ones in our city who otherwise might not be able to celebrate that birthday milestone.” Indigo Alert parliamentary petition now live After Parker went missing, Ball launched a Change.org petition calling for a national Indigo Alert system for missing vulnerable children. As of Monday, the petition had more than 41,000 signatures. Since then, Ball and her Indigo Alert Canada co-founder Steven Phan have been working with Leduc-Wetaskiwin MP Mike Lake to launch a parliamentary petition to expand on Canada emergency alert system to help vulnerable persons who go missing. “He has sponsored our House of Commons petition,” Ball explained. The petition — e-7703 — went live Monday and will be available to sign until Dec. 22. The petition asks the federal government to develop shared national standards for a vulnerable missing persons alert framework that would better protect people with autism, non-speaking individuals and people with intellectual or developmental disabilities who wander or go missing. “We just want a change for the gap in the system that could have saved Parker’s life,” Ball said. “This petition is to close that gap, to ensure that if somebody who can’t advocate for themselves goes missing, there’s a system to help save them.” As of 3 p.m. Tuesday, the petition had more than 2,700 signatures.
