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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

Volunteers continue to put up awareness posters for Lauren Spierer

Voices for Lauren, a local awareness group for missing IU student Lauren Spierer, met Saturday to put up posters in an event called P.U.M.P. 4 Lauren, which stands for “putting up more posters for Lauren.”

About a dozen volunteers met in front of Smallwood Plaza, 455 N. College Ave., to help distribute awareness posters. Event organizer and Bloomington local Kristen Mills said the group is continuing search efforts despite an anonymous letter sent to Spierer’s parents asking them to stop putting up posters.

“We’re doing this because we said we’ll never give up,” Mills said. “We’re not trying to make anyone mad.

“I made that promise to her parents, and I’m never going to break that promise.”

According to a post by Charlene Spierer, Lauren’s mother, on the @NewsOnLaurenS Twitter feed, the letter said, “We are sorry about your missing daughter. But don’t you think it’s time to do the right thing by Bloomington and stop littering our town with your posters?”

The members of Voices for Lauren responded with a strong emotional support for the family and renewed awareness-raising efforts.

“This is not retaliation, but it offended me that this would happen,” volunteer Suzanne May said. “If this was my child, I’d want this support, too.”

The group made ribbons, lanyards and about 500 posters for distribution, said Mary Ann Ryan, a founder of the organization.

Mills said the group will continue distributing posters and is planning a lighting walk to mark the sixth-month anniversary of Spierer’s disappearance, which is Dec. 3.

“What some people consider trash is the treasure of her parents,” Ryan said. “We’ll continue doing it.”

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