Your family is on vacation, and your child disappears or wanders off (G-d forbid). What do you do?
It’s every parent’s worst nightmare. But parents can be prepared for the unthinkable to happen.
The IL CHIP (Illinois Childhood Identification Program) is a free program that can help parents have some defense. IL CHIP is a free “insurance policy” for families, giving parents the tools to help emergency responders and law enforcement if something happens to a child. IL CHIP provides parents with an identification package for each child, which includes a photo; a DNA swab; fingerprints; and a recorded “interview”.
Help keep your kids safe with the IL CHIP program, offered at the Playing It Safe event on Saturday, June 5 at the Champaign County Fairgrounds.
Sponsored by the Urbana Masonic Lodge No. 157, IL CHIP will be at the Playing It Safe event on Saturday, June 5, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Champaign County Fairgrounds in Urbana. Playing It Safe brings together more than 40 local organizations and agencies for an interactive, free event — which even features free food — that parents and kids can enjoy together. It is sponsored by Carle Foundation Hospital and Champaign County SAFE KIDS. (See our earlier post on Playing It Safe.)
The IL CHIP booth will be located in Kessler Hall during Playing It Safe. With the help of volunteers, the Freemasons of Illinois hold and fund the entire cost of identification workshops for families all around the state of Illinois. It takes about seven minutes to go through the process to complete a child identification package. The information — most of which is contained on a CD — is compact and private. The IL CHIP program keeps only the parental permission form.
The Masons fund each packet, which cost one dollar each, but parents pay nothing. What you’ll receive from IL CHIP:
- a color photo that records image and height and is digitized on a convenient CD that can be easily circulated by police to the media and distributed across the state within an hour via Illinois’ AmberAlert Program.
- DNA sample taken through a saliva cheek swab. The parent does this and instructions for storage are included.
- Fingerprints
- Recorded interview captures on the same CD as the picture the appearance, speech patterns, personal characteristics, and mannerisms for easy media distribution.
While it’s important to have such documents in a safe place, the Freemasons recommend taking the packet along on vacation or in the car for an outing — just in case. And unfortunately, there are times where it has come in use. There was an instance of a child abduction at a popular family attraction in the Chicago suburbs recently.
“The Mother had the packet of information and they were able to turn that over to the authorities,” McBride said, adding that the story had a happy ending; the child was returned safely.
That’s the goal of IL CHIP and Playing It Safe — to keep kids and parents happy and healthy.
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