Amber's Speech for the CUE Center: On the Road to Remember National Tour

(This is a speech that Amber gave today at the CUE Center "On the Road to Remember" National Tour rally stop for Rachel. We, Amber's family, would like to say how proud we are of Amber and that we will not give up looking for Rachel! We are thankful to The Henry Countian for their continuing coverage of events pertaining to Rachel, the CUE Center for adding Rachel to their national tour and URSAR for coming up to search for Rachel at the beginning of August and their ongoing efforts to find Rachel!)

I would like to thank everyone for coming today and a special Thank You to the CUE Center for Missing Persons for adding my mother, Rachel Conger, to their Road to Remember Tour.I would like to tell you about my mom. She’s so much more than just a face on a poster. She loved riding horses and motorcycles, and listening to country music. She collected ceramic frogs. She liked reading-especially books written by Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and James Patterson, but she sometimes read nonfiction as well. My mom loved animals. We had miniature dachshunds and she treated them like babies. She was always picking up stray cats and dogs and bringing them home to take care of because she felt so sorry for them.

Mama loved children too. I have seen her sit down on the floor at the doctor’s office to play with them. My mother was a really nice person and tried to teach me to be too. She did not believe in gossiping about other people. Once when we were in Wal Mart I made a nasty remark about someone and mama told me “if I couldn’t say something nice about someone then don’t say anything.” The she made me say something nice about everyone we walked by. I really miss my mom; we could talk to each other about anything. She was my best friend.

This summer my family, friends, and I have had several fundraisers to raise money for expenses for a professional search organization to come to Paris to search for my mother. A couple of weeks ago, United Response Search & Rescue, a search team from Texas came to Paris to search for my mother. Unfortunately, they did not find her, but I’m not giving up the search. While the search team was here they trained some volunteers in ways to search for missing people and we plan to continue the searching until my mother is found. We hope to be able to continue the fundraising efforts and buy equipment that will aid the search for my mother as well as others who may go missing.

Next Saturday, September 6, beginning at 5PM, a benefit concert is being held for my mother at the Casey Jones Amphitheater in Jackson Tennessee. The benefit organizer and featured musician is Mary Elizabeth Murphy from Humboldt. In addition to Mary Elizabeth, there will be several other country and Christian bands playing. All proceeds from the concert are being donated to the Bring Rachel Home Fund. Please make plans to be there!