Residents accelerate search for missing children

In the Fireball Run Space Race, speed is the secondary mission. The primary goal of the rally, which runs from from Hartford, Conn., to Cocoa Beach, is to find missing children.

This Sunday, 57 teams will begin an eight-day, 2,000-mile journey designed to increase awareness for children who have run away, been abducted or are otherwise missing. Each team is assigned a missing child to help promote during challenges along the race. In its ninth year, the event has already helped recover 44 children.

One of them was a young girl assigned to Sarasota resident Ariane Dart and her teammate, Tracy Leichtenberger, in 2012. For Dart, the ultimate prize isn’t a trophy, but learning that one of the children is found safe.

“The child we had in 2012 was found alive, which was extraordinary,” she says. “They believe it was the mother who abducted her. She was 5. We were never given the privilege of knowing what happened because she was a minor.”

This year marks the fourth time Dart and Leichtenberger will participate in the race. In 2014, they took home the first-place prize for their participation in challenges along the route. This year, three local teams will join them, and the missions have already started.
 

The duo completed its first mission Thursday, Sept. 10, by presenting Sarasota City Mayor Willie Shaw a poster of their missing child: Alexander Erb-Sanchez, who was last seen Nov. 7, 2008, in Ellenton. He was 16 months old when he was reported missing.

Teams receive a decal to display by their driver’s door as they make stops throughout the race. But the Ferrari that Dart and Leichtenberger will take turns driving this year includes a more personal touch — a car wrap with a photo of Erb-Sanchez, in case anyone recognizes him along the way.

Dart is also involved in other local children’s causes, including the Forty Carrots Family Center’s Firefly Gala, which she founded, and the Dart Family Foundation, which distributes grants for youth education. For her, the Fireball Run is another way to help children in need.

“I just put myself in the shoes of those parents,” she says. “To me, that’s my job. That’s what I want to do.”