Area Masons hoping to help find lost children

By Ken Johnston
Editor

What would you do if your child went missing?
You would likely call the police but would you be ready to help them find your child as quickly and as effectively as possible?
Ken McDonald of Stratton, a member of the Masonic Lodge in Emo (Manitou Lodge 631), together with members from Rainy River and Fort Frances lodges are spearheading efforts locally to bring the MasoniCHiP program to this area to get parents prepared in case the unimaginable were to happen here.
MasoniCHiP stands for Masonic Child Identification Program. A little more than a year old in Ontario, the program recently surpassed its 12,000th child identified.
The program is free to all people and utilizes special technology that takes a digital photograph, digital video, digital fingerprints, vital child information and either a dental bite impression or an Intra Oral Swab. All the information is burned to a CD ROM and given to the parents to keep in a safe place so that if the unthinkable were to happen the police would have all the tools they need to quickly attempt to find the missing child.
McDonald said the initiative came to light during the last Deputy Grand Master’s term (Dan Johnson of Rainy River) but there was not enough time left on his watch to get it up and running. So under the new Deputy Grand Master, Bob Cox of Atikokan, Masonic Lodges in the region have been working to bring the MasoniCHiP program to their respective communities.
At first McDonald said that they were not sure there was a problem here in one of the safest areas of Ontario to live, but then seeing statistics like the one that nearly 55 kids per day are reported missing in Ontario they came to the conclusion that “it could happen here.”
There are four of the special Identification machines in Thunder Bay. McDonald said they are hoping that if there is enough interest they will bring at least one, and perhaps more of them to the Emo Walleye Classic, May 28-30, 2009. “We need about 50 kids to make it viable,” explained McDonald, noting that the three lodges in Rainy River, Emo and Fort Frances will pay the costs for the kids to be Identified.
He also noted that everything is strictly confidential. “We take the photos, fingerprint them and compile the information, but once the package is done all of it is completely erased from the machine we use.” All the information is handed to the parents in an envelope. The only thing the Masons keep is a signed permission slip signed by a parent or guardian giving the Mason’s permission to I.D. the child.
For that reason each child must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian to have MasoniCHiP done. At this time the local Masons are testing the waters to see if there is enough interest here to bring the program in. If it is overwhelming they will likely hold the program again at a later date and likely at locations elsewhere in the district. To sign up parents should call Ken McDonald (Emo-Stratton area) 483-5460, Dan Johnson (Rainy River-Morson-Pinewood area) 852-3331 or Alan Tibbetts (Fort Frances area) 274-6687.
Organizations like the Ontario Amber Alert system have complimented the Masons on this free of charge service and how effective it is in helping the police get all vital information out as quickly as possible when a child goes missing.
And the thought that it won’t happen here is nonsense. Newspapers in this district received several missing person’s notices from the O.P.P. in 2008.
The procedure takes about 15 minutes per child and all operators of the machine have had criminal records checks. Again all information gathered is wiped from the machine right after the parents get the disk and vital info. on paper.
McDonald said, “The first two hours after a child goes missing are the most critical. We as Masons hope that we can make a difference by providing parents the tools to help get their kid back.”