Child ID kits from Brunswick Electric may help locate missing children

Chip Leavitt, CEO of Brunswick EMC and his five-year old son Walker using the inkless fingerprinting Child ID kit.

SUPPLY, NC, November 11, 2003 - - - Brunswick Electric Membership Corporation, the local Touchstone Energy cooperative has distributed a Child ID kit for every first grader in every elementary school in Brunswick and Columbus counties. Nearly 2400 kits were sent home with a note to parents urging them to fill it out.

With 800,000 children missing each year, one child every 40 SECONDS [Statistics, U.S., Dept of Justice], every parent in every community needs to take steps to prepare for locating a missing child. A little more than half of these missing children are runaways, with the remainder abducted by family members or strangers. This program allows the parents to compile and store in their own home information that is critical to help law enforcement locate a missing child.

Robert W. “Chip” Leavitt, Jr, CEO of Brunswick Electric says, “When we were given the opportunity to partner with Touchstone Energy, the FBI and the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) to bring the National Child Identification Program to our service area, we knew this was a great way for us to help the community. This is a simple program that can make all the difference by immediately providing the authorities with the vital information they need to help in locating a missing child.”

The kit consists of an inkless fingerprinting foil pouch and an ID card including step-by-step instructions detailing how to take your child’s fingerprints. There’s also an area to record the child’s physical description and any identifying marks, space for a current photograph and a place to record doctor’s names. The inkless fingerprint system is clean and convenient, making it easy for parents to use the kit at home, rather than wait for a traditional fingerprinting program to come to their area. Getting this information together is best done ahead of time, not when your child is actually missing. Having this information immediately available can go a long way toward making the recovery of a missing child possible. Combined with the “Amber Alert” system currently being implemented in NC, this provides valuable tools for law enforcement.

Leavitt says, “It’s a very simple process. I used the kit with my 5-year old son, Walker. I certainly feel a lot better, having taken a few minutes to get this form completed. I know I’ll be ready if we ever need it. We urge all parents of first-graders to fill out the kit and store it in a safe place. Of course, the hope is that you will never need it. But if you do, being able to lay your hands on this information in minutes can make all the difference.”

The FBI and AFCA started the National Child Identification Program (NCIDP) in 1997 and to date, over 10,000,000 inkless Child ID kits have been distributed nationally, mostly at college football games. Major corporations like American Airlines, Best Western Hotels, Hershey Foods, Rotary and Optimist clubs and others are helping with this effort. Touchstone Energy and its cooperatives are now putting the power of 600 member co-ops in 44 states to bring this program to America’s co-op member communities. NCIDP is the largest child identification program of its kind, with a goal of distributing 60 million ID kits to all children K-12 over the next few years. We are well on our way here in southeastern NC with this initiative by BEMC.