Gabby Petito‘s father is using his platform for good — and he hopes others follow suit.
After his daughter went missing and then was found murdered in September, Joseph Petito has been a shining example of how to transform grief and loss into doing good for the world. Along with his wife Tara, Gabby’s mother Nichole Schmidt and stepfather Jim Schmidt — who have put on an impressively united front — Jim has not been lashing out or emotionally spiraling. Instead he has put his focus on becoming an advocate for other missing persons and victims of domestic violence.
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His Twitter account has been dedicated to sharing the stories of others whose families are still looking, including Daniel Robinson, Lateche Norris, and many others. That’s in addition to the Gabby Petito Foundation, a non-profit the parents founded to “address the needs of organizations that support locating missing persons and to provide aid to organizations that assist victims of domestic violence situations, through education, awareness, and prevention strategies.” The foundation has its own page dedicated exclusively to sharing stories of missing persons called Gabby – Find the Missing. You can find that HERE.
Now Joe is asking others who have even larger platforms to do just a tiny bit of the work. He posted a message to his Twitter page on Wednesday which read:
“Imagine how many people would be found if celebrities and influencers shared at least 1 missing person story a month.”
He added:
“I believe this would make a huge difference in how fast people are found. If you would like to see this, tag who you think would, and maybe it can happen. #togetherwecan #MissingPerson #GabbyPetito #everybitcounts”
I believe this would make a huge difference in how fast people are found. If you would like to see this, tag who you think would, and maybe it can happen. ????#togetherwecan #MissingPerson #GabbyPetito #everybitcounts pic.twitter.com/TIqfryuiUz
— joseph petito (@josephpetito) December 2, 2021
It’s a really good point. Joe only has so much bandwidth. He’s accumulated a following over 100k strong on Twitter due to the spotlight from Gabby’s highly covered case, but that’s a fraction of what, say, Kylie Jenner has. Imagine if she sent something to her 39.4 million followers? That’s nearly 400 TIMES as many eyeballs on it! Or the 285 million on her Instagram?? That’s nearly 3,000 times as many people seeing an alert as when Joe shares it.
We’re not picking on Kylie, btw. She’s just the first ludicrously popular person who popped into our heads as someone who could start sharing one missing person post a month and really make a difference. There are obviously tons of other celebs and influencers who could join the cause.
What do YOU think of this plan??
[Image via Kylie Jenner/Gabby Petito/Instagram/NewsNation Now/YouTube.]
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