Kevin Bardsley - 2007 Reader's Digest Hero of the Year

In April of this year over one million Reader’s Digest Readers voted to name Kevin Bardsley the RD 2007 Hero of the Year. Bardsley might have been happier never receiving the nomination. No one wants to lose a child to be called a hero.

But in Bardsley’s case he didn’t win because his son, Garrett, went missing in 2004 from a scout camping trip in Utah. He was nominated for what he did afterward and how he and his family used their grief to help others.

Garrett is still missing after three years. The Bardsleys feel certain he is not coming back and but still compile search information on their website FindGarrett.org. They intend to keep looking until their son’s body is recovered.

Kevin Bardsley wants to save other families from the ordeal of losing a child, focusing on the mountains where Garrett was lost. This area is popular with campers and scout troops like the one Garrett was with when he went missing. Bardsley started a foundation to help find children lost in the Uinta Mountains of Utah. He bought GPS tracking equipment and trained a small army of volunteers to be ready at a moments notice.

Ten months after Garrett’s disappearance, Bardsley got a call. Another scout was missing in an area only 26 miles from where Garrett was last seen. Bardsley dropped everything and headed to the mountains. He met with the parents of Brennan Hawkins, the 11 year old missing boy and joined law enforcement and his volunteers in the search.

He used the knowledge gained from searching for his own son to suggest wide sweep searches and immediate contact with the media. It worked. 3,000 additional volunteers showed up to help and after four days of exhaustive effort, Brennan was found on the other side of the mountain. Instead of going for lower ground to look for a road, as one might expect, he’d headed up the rugged terrain and over the mountain. A searcher on an ATV happened upon him drinking from a stream.

Bardsley’s efforts to help other families would be enough to garner the hero award but he has also used the money from the Garrett Bardsley Foundation to open a school in Garrett’s name in Puca Cruz, Ecuador.

Kevin Bardsley received his award in Washington DC where he said, “I think the most important thing is that we all do good wherever we are for whomever we can.”

He is truly an amazing man who lives by his values and with integrity in spite of the tragedy that struck his family and son. At FindGarrett.org, the Bardsley’s volunteers are always available to look for a missing child in Utah and always on the look out for current information about their son.