The Houston Masonic Lodge and Eastern Star will conduct the annual child identification program during the Parents as Teachers Health and Safety Fair, Saturday, Aug. 8, in the community building at the Houston Area Chamber of Commerce Fairgrounds.
The program consists of five major components: Digital photographs and 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. Once the child is processed through the program (which generally takes only 15 minutes), the parent is armed with a single pre-printed envelope that instructs authorities in the event of an emergency (something a parent in crisis could have trouble with) and a proactive measure to combat the time sensitivity involved in recovery.
Within a matter of minutes, the MoCHIP CD can be loaded into a computer directly from a police officer’s automobile and entered into the AMBER Alert system. Girls and boys ages 11 to 21 are statistically most susceptible to become missing and the “MoCHIP Packet” that contains all the child’s vital information has been tested at least seven times, resulting in all children – teenagers – being returned safely and promptly to their parents care.
On the day of the event, parents are urged to gather pertinent information about such
as, doctor, dentist and emergency contact, and phone numbers, allergies, medications and
parent work, as well as cell and assorted phone numbers. Information collection forms and permission slips can be downloaded from the mochip.org website and filled out 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, and all information and specimens are collected on site, processed and provided to the parent or legal guardian in a yellow envelope. 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.
For more information, log onto www.mochip.org, or call Bennie Cook at 417-967-4484.