Volunteers helping with efforts to keep missing 6-year-old Isabel Celis' face and information in public view have moved their headquarters to another location in midtown.
Isabel's mother, Becky Celis, gave a public statement Friday morning announcing the move.
The Isabel Celis Faith and Hope Center will operate out of the Christian Faith Fellowship, 5601 E. Broadway, near Craycroft Road.
"This is where we're going to be for hopefully until Isabel comes home," Celis said. "We're still praying that she's out there and she's coming home, and my whole family still has a lot of confidence that she'll be back soon."
Volunteers have been gathering almost daily since Isabel was taken from her midtown home in late April to make fliers, door hangers, ribbons and other items with Isabel's photo and description to give to community members.
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Their goal is to make sure nobody forgets that Isabel is missing and to keep up their efforts until she is found.
"Our vision is three simple words," said volunteer Dan Smidt. "Bring Isa home."
The group previously met at the Abbie Loveland Tuller School on East 14th Street, just south of Park Place Mall. However, with preparations underway for the start of the new school year, volunteers had to find another space to work from, Smidt said.
The number of people visiting the volunteer center has declined, Celis said, but people continue to ask her and family members for fliers to post. She said she hopes the better visibility of the new location will bring in more people to pick up fliers.
"We're asking the community to continue putting fliers out there; if that's all you can do, we would appreciate that," Celis said. "Just come by and pick up some fliers and post it on your streets and keep her picture out there."
The volunteers' latest project has been to make "monsoon-proof" fliers, Smidt said.
"With the monsoon storms, a lot of fliers have fallen down and come down, so we've inserted our color fliers in document protectors ... and put them back up, so if they get rained on they still stay up," he said.
Volunteers also are organizing a prayer vigil for Isabel at the new center for July 23 at 7 p.m.
Celis said she is grateful to the community for its help and she continues to pray for Isabel's safe return.
"I pray all the time, and every time I feel like ... my confidence that she's coming home is coming down, I pray and I get some kind of little feeling inside that I'm like, 'all right, I know she's coming home.' To me that's enough ... enough to get us by," she said.
Isabel was reported missing from her home in the 5600 block of East 12th Street on April 21. Since then, local and federal authorities have continued to go through tips and leads to find the missing first-grader, but no major developments have been made.
Isabel Celis Faith and Hope Center
Address: Christian Faith Fellowship, 5601 E. Broadway.
Hours: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mon.-Sat.; 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sun.
More information: www.bringisahome.com
Contact reporter Veronica Cruz at vcruz@azstarnet.com or 573-4224.
