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Many of Mrs. Dunstan's friends are helping in the search.
Special
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Tamara Dunstan is so selfless, friends and family say, that she'd probably be surprised to see her friends and family mobilized to find her after her Thursday abduction.
"She's the most selfless person I've ever known," said Allison Mendoza Edenfield, a friend since childhood and the matron of honor in her June 28 wedding.
"We lived in the same neighborhood when we were little kids," she said.
"Our brothers played on the same soccer team together, and we were their cheerleaders when we were 6 or 8."
"I'm sure even right now she's even more worried about how her husband and family are doing than she is about herself."
But caring is what she's about.
Mrs. Dunstan is a pediatric oncology nurse at Medical College of Georgia Hospital.
"She's always wanted to be a nurse," Mrs. Edenfield said. "I know that once she got into nursing, that's what she wanted to do."
When Mrs. Dunstan completed a job interview for the position at MCG, "she was so excited because it was such a perfect fit," Mrs. Edenfield said.
Working with children is her passion.
Under Mrs. Dunstan's biography on classmates.com, a Web site that helps people stay in touch with high school and college friends, her feelings about work are listed as "I love what I do and can't imagine doing anything else."
Mrs. Dunstan graduated from Lakeside High School in 1992 and attended Furman University before completing her higher education at Clemson University.
She also stated on her classmates.com profile, "I can't wait to have children."
Mrs. Dunstan is three months pregnant with her first child.
"She's always known that she's wanted children," said Mrs. Edenfield, who added that Mrs. Dunstan is her daughter's godmother.
Both of them, she said, have met at least twice a week for lunch over the years, meeting up and talking about significant events in their lives - like their weddings, expecting their children and renovations to the Dunstan residence.
On Saturday, the Rev. Jerry Ragan, of St. Mary on the Hill Catholic Church, was putting together a prayer vigil to be held later in the evening.
He married her and her husband Bernard Dunstan III and has been close to the family for about two years.
He said people have been praying in the church's Adoration Chapel since her abduction.
"We're asking everyone to pray for Tamara's safety," the preacher said.
Mrs. Dunstan is loved, friends say, by more people than she'd ever believe - who have picked up fliers and handed them all over.
Countless people, some of whom shy away and don't want credit for helping, and others who have never met Mrs. Dunstan, have volunteered to spread the word about her disappearance.
"People have been very supportive where they possibly can," said Kelly Stevenson, a family friend of the Dunstans.
"The stores and the local businesses have been great. We've had so many donations," she said. "The whole city has bent over backward to do everything they can."
The reward poster is also going on the boxes of local pizza restaurants and Krispy Kreme doughnut boxes, she said.
A Web site devoted to finding Mrs. Dunstan is going up, Ms. Stevenson said, but she was unsure of the Internet address for it Saturday.
Mrs. Dunstan's disappearance has garnered regional and national attention. Reward posters now line Interstate 20 all the way to Atlanta. The posters have also made it to Savannah and over to Athens, Ms. Stevenson said.
"We want her face everywhere that it could possibly be," she said.
Reach Jeremy Craig at (706) 823-3409 or jeremy.craig@augustachronicle.com.
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