'Tis the season to be jolly, but it's also time for a little-known organization — The Innocent Lives Foundation, or ILF — to raise money.
The ILF hires experts to search the internet, with a goal of protecting children.
The organization held a fund-raiser recently at Celtic Ray in Punta Gorda, and it was anything but your usual toy drive for kids.
"We use open-source skills to find people on the dark web, and the open web, that are hurting kids around the globe," Chris Hadnagy, the founder of Innocent Lives Foundation, said.
Hadnagy, of Orlando, is an author and former professor, specializing in internet security. Now he's the unpaid chief executive of the ILF.
"The dark web is a main hub for crime," Hadnagy said. "Folks sell weapons, drugs and people. They trade in child pornography heavily."
ILF has operated for seven years, and claims authorities world-wide have accepted 554 cases, many leading to prison sentences. Seventy percent of cases are in the United States.
Twenty-nine-year-old Shelby Dacko lives in Charlotte County and volunteers for the group.
"We've had parents reach out to us and thank us," Dacko said. "That gratitude...there's nothing like it. Knowing that you changed even one life. It's amazing."
Nineteen-year-old Che Yzaguirre of Lee County said he had not heard about the group until WGCU News filled him in on the ILF mission and activities. He's a student at Florida Southwestern State College and said he sometimes worries about citizens taking action.
"I think there's a proper way to do things," Yzaguirre said. "With officers and what-not. It is dangerous."
But Yzaguirre added a caveat: Stopping online predators outweighs a lot of qualms.
"If the officers aren't going for them, let someone else go get them," he said. "Catch them. They're bad people."
ILF develops information and then turns it over to law enforcement, usually at the federal or national level, but sometimes local.
The Charlotte County Sheriff's Office said current sex crimes detectives have not worked on ILF tips. But a public information officer said those investigators described ILF as seeming to be well-organized. Christopher Hall, public information officer for the sheriff's office, said detectives would not be opposed to future collaboration with ILF.
A spokeswoman at the FBI office in Tampa said the bureau would not talk about ILF, or any person or group that offers, or might offer, tips about crime.
The group said its people blur images, so the researchers don't break laws on viewing child pornography. But they see lots of messages about abusing children.
Twenty-seven-year old John McCombs of Port Charlotte is a volunteer for ILF, and organized the fundraiser in Punta Gorda.
"There's children out there waking up every day, living a horror story," McCombs said. "We stop one predator, that's eight, nine, 10 or more children that've been affected."
But those horror stories also affect the ILF investigators. That's when Erin Maloney comes in. She is a mental health counselor specializing in helping people who've been through trauma. She said sometimes researchers just have to take a break.
"And so where I see the tough part is when someone is frustrated," Maloney said. "We did a lot of legwork and we don't get the person, we don't get the win. So what I can do is after the next win, play that up to the team and boost morale."
The Punta Gorda event drew hundreds of people during a day of auctions, music and a pub crawl. ILF raised nearly $15,000.
Chris Hadnagy said the group needs money because people have been cutting back on giving the past two years. He blamed the higher cost of living for the fundraising problems. He said ILF does pay five staffers and also must buy new, and often costly, software. Still he's determined to press on.
"The way these people talk about children as objects...well I.don't want to get too graphic but it's disgusting, depressing, really sad," Hadnagy said. "And it makes me angry. But I turn the anger to action. And when we turn a case to law enforcement and they accept it, I feel: OK, that guy's going away. There's a lot of joy when it comes to that."
Mike Walcher is a reporter with WGCU News. He also teaches a course for the FGCU Journalism program. He can be reached at mwalcher@wgcu.org. WGCU is your trusted source for news and information in Southwest Florida. We are a nonprofit public service, and your support is more critical than ever. Keep public media strong and donate now. Thank you.