ID protection

Recent events involving missing children have increased awareness among parents of how crucial having complete identification information could be. Thanks to the Missouri Masonic Children's Foundation and Wehrenberg's Cape West 14 Cine, parents of several hundred children now have a complete ID kit after Saturday's Missouri Child Identification Program, or MoCHIP.

The kit includes photographs, fingerprints, personal data, dental bite impressions and DNA samples. These are the items police rely on when looking for a missing child.

Since September 2005, the MoCHIP program has produced ID kits for approximately 15,000 Missouri children. The goal for 2007 is 25,000 children.

In addition to Cape West 14 Cine, Saturday's event was sponsored by Harold O. Grauel Lodge 672 and St. Mark's Lodge 93. These sponsors and the parents whose children participated in the MoCHIP effort are doing a good thing.