Press Release for the Dominican Republic and Canada
My dear friends, my name is Kenneth Brown and I am speaking on behalf of my brother and the Brown family. We would like to convey our heartfelt gratitude to the people of the Dominican Republic; without you Patrick Brown would still be lost.
We would like to thank the following people:
General Richard Vasquez Jimenez of The Dominican Air Force and all of the men and women under his command
Leon Alter Founder of ILASA and his team of volunteers
A2 Air Force Intelligence
The National Police and their K9 Unit, Molina K9, Ramon Molina and Yuna
The dedicated officers of the Tourist Police CESTUR
The compassionate volunteers of the Maimon and Puerto Plata Civil Defense
Jose and all the people from Guananico and Maimon who helped with all their hearts.
North Coast Crime Stoppers, volunteers and NGOs
The Honorary Consul for Canada, Mr. Tim Hall from the Canadian Consulate in Puerto Plata and his amazing staff for expediting Patrick’s Documentation.
The Vice Minister of Tourism for the north coast Dominican Republic Julio Almonte
The Foreign Affairs Minister, and staff in Canada
A very special, heartfelt thank you goes out to Leon Alter originally from Canada. He is Founder and President of (ILASA) International Law and Security Association and the Founder of North Coast Crime Stoppers Dominican Republic.
We started our social media campaign hoping and praying that we would find someone to organize our ground search. Leon, you have been fantastic! You have gone above and beyond.
We are so grateful to everyone who participated, everyone is important. Leon’s direction and liaison skills, SAR and military experience, local military and government connections and command of the English and Spanish language made all the difference. Not only bringing my brother back to our family, but bringing our two countries closer together.
Countless people were involved in this rescue effort. Each and every one of you contributed to the retrieval of my missing brother Patrick Brown. Thank you to all of you who helped in the successful search and rescue operation for our loved one. Our family will never forget you.
To show our appreciation; our family has started to implement donations in support of the Dominican Republic to improve Emergency Response.
For the Civil Defence Units: shirts and hats, approximately 20 pairs of binoculars, 120 utility knives and approximately 50 radios. With these tools, we hope to increase the effectiveness of the Civil Defence Force no matter the emergency.
We will be paying for the training of two additional K9 units and providing dog food for a year.
We are also making a donation to the orphanage Casa De Ninos Felices in Sosua Dominican Republic.
In our meeting, General Richard Vasquez Jimenez announced the creation of a dedicated Search and Rescue Team for the North Coast that will be organized by the Air Force and Leon Alter of ILASA.
To the people of the Dominican Republic; when our family’s hearts were broken; all of you stepped up and gave us your hearts. You will always be brothers and sisters to our family. You have been so generous and kind to us in every way, we feel our two countries have a new bond between them and we all pulled together during a very stressful time for our family. We will share our gratitude with everyone we talk to when we return to Canada and celebrate what you have achieved for us. We will definitely travel to the Dominican Republic in the future with our friends and family, and we will encourage others to visit and see what your beautiful country and amazing people have to offer.
At this time, we respectfully request privacy for our family to allow for our recuperation and joyful reunion.
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