Communities coming together to unite for/against a cause has always been prevalent in society. We’ve seen it for the O.J. Simpson case, the Elián González custody battle and the Terri Schiavo case. Those are pretty mainstream examples, but the common theme is people banding together for what they feel strongly for. The emotional connections to these cases were apparent, thus creating strong community voices for each. Tying that into the new media tools that we have now to communicate and get messages across, the scope of these communities have the possibility to multiple tenfold.

Just this afternoon, I, among thousands of others, have witnessed a similar community form before our eyes. The community is taking shape on Twitter right as we speak and is reaching out to thousands of folks across the network about a young girl, McKenzie Church (@genochurch’s daughter), who has been reported missing from her home this past weekend. The report made headway on Twitter as Rob Williams (@orangejack) tweeted an Amber Alert with a post he made on his blog. Before he and anyone else knew it, it’s been retweeted hundreds of times and is prevalant through a Twitter search and the number of results that you’ll see pouring in.

It’s amazing how an online service we normally take for granted, send out links with and tweet what we’re currently doing, can help bring together the entire community for a cause of spreading the word and finding a missing child.

In the end, aside from communities and Twitter, all I and everyone else wish for is to see McKenzie back home and safe with her family. It’s an unfortunate and sad situation but with the effort of Twitter’s community and hopefully reaching the right folks in the surrounding areas of where she is missing, someone will be able to find her.

Prayers go out to her and her family.

UPDATE: McKenzie returned home safely on the morning of Oct. 14th. Great news!