The annual “Child Identification and Protection Program” is 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 29, at Houston Elementary School.
This program is provided free by the Masonic Children’s Foundation and Houston Masonic Lodge, and consists of five major components: digital photographs, digital fingerprints, vital child information and emergency contacts, a dental bite impression and two laminated ID cards. The photographs, fingerprints and child data are burned onto a mini-CD that is compatible with the Amber Alert system already in place. The dental impression provides a virtual diagram of the child’s biting surface, which, like fingerprints, is unique to each individual, and further supplies enough saliva to provide a DNA sample that can also be used as scent source for trained canine search teams. Combined, this five-part process provides a dramatic, time sensitive recovery tool for authorities.
On the day of the child identification event, parents are urged to gather pertinent information such as: doctor, dentist, emergency contact and phone numbers, allergies, medications and parent work, cell and assorted phone numbers. Information collection forms and permission slips can be downloaded from the mochip.org website and completed ahead of time. Height charts and scales are available at the event to facilitate the most current details regarding the child.
Security and privacy are of utmost importance in the program, and all information and specimens are collected on site, processed and provided to the parent or legal guardian in a yellow envelope, officials said. At the end of each event, databases are erased using state-of-the-art software. The only item retained by the Masonic Children’s Foundation is the signed permission slip.
This program is deemed “one of the most comprehensive child recovery and identification programs in the nation,” by The National Center for Exploited and Missing Children (NCEMC), and the leader of the Take 25 campaign.
For more information about the child ID program, call Bennie Cook at 417-260-2382 or email him at texaslodge177@gmail.com