It was the loss of his father nearly a year ago when he wandered away from his home in Coquitlam that led Sam Noh to team up with two other volunteers to create Silver Alert - a social media alert system to warn when people with dementia go missing. Sam's father Shin Ik Noh, 64 at the time of his disappearance last Sept. 18, suffered from Alzheimer's.

When news got out of his disappearance, people reported seeing the retired pastor but the reports came too late to help search efforts.

To compound the tragedy of his disappearance, Shin Noh has never been found. Sam continues to search for him, knowing that his search is now not for his father but for remains that may bring closure for his family.

His father's disappearance led Sam Noh to team up with Shawn Bouchard - who had a relative who was found dead of hypothermia after walking away from her care home - and search and rescue volunteer Michael Coyle to launch a silver version of the well-known Amber Alert for kids. The three are hoping their volunteer initiative will prompt the government to launch a Silver Alert system, similar to ones that have been adopted by 35 U.S. states and by New York City.

"The fact is, there isn't a very good alerting system out there," said Coyle, a search manager with Coquitlam Search and Rescue. "The RCMP, who we deal with a lot, and some of the other police forces are kind of confined to posting it on their website or Twitter and sometimes the media picks up on it."

By the time the news gets out, it can be too late, said Coyle.

"Mr. Noh went missing on the 18th of September - people saw him the day he went missing but by the time they reported their tips it was three or fours days later and the tips weren't good anymore."

Silver Alert is a website with Twitter and Facebook accounts and an email alert option. The site filters news releases and alerts issued by police and if the missing person fits the criteria for Silver Alert - that is, suffers dementia or some other cognitive impairment including autism - it will be posted on the site, BCSilverAlert.ca or through @BCSilverAlert on Twitter and on Facebook.

"We know citizens want to help out and this is just one tool we have developed," Sam Noh said of the Silver Alert website and social media initiative. "We still need the government to create an official Silver Alert program." Bouchard, who is one of the three volunteer founders of Silver Alert, works at Vancouver social media company HootSuite. While he's not working on Silver Alert as part of his day job, it was his experience with social media that led him to believe it could be used to improve the reporting of sightings when people go missing.

Bouchard's connection comes from his wife's distant cousin - who the family called Aunt Joan - who was living at Sunrise Senior Living in North Vancouver at the time of her death.