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Florida Masonic
Child ID Program
or
Masonic CHIP
Over 800 thousand children are reported missing
in the United States each year, meaning one every 40 seconds.
Imagine every single citizen of Key West disappearing over
a two week period. That
is scary! 
There
is typically over a two hour delay in making the initial missing
child report, and the majority of the abducted children who are
murdered are dead within three hours of the abduction. 1
There are
estimated to be about 100 cases per year in the US where a child
is abducted and murdered. The
victims of these cases are "average" children, leading
normal lives, and living with normal families, typical low-risk
victims. The majority
of them are girls, with the average age being slightly over 11
years of age. In 80%
of cases, the initial contact between the victim and killer is
within 1/4 mile of the victim's residence.
In our small community in the last couple of months, the
headlines of the newspaper reported several sexual predators being
arrested. On August 25th,
in Key West, 39 year old Michael Carroll was arrested for a sex
offense against a child under 16; he was a registered sexual
predator. In our
little town, at the end of the road, in what most call
“Paradise”, there are over 70 registered sexual offenders.
2
When
I was a teenager in New York, back in the late 70’s, I remember
the headlines of the paper reading of a boy named Etan Patz, who
disappeared not far from my house.
I couldn’t believe it.
I always thought and hoped he would turn up back home with
his family. I remember
what he looked like, his pictures were everywhere.
He didn’t look much different than I did at his age, and
not much different than my son looks today. He
was only 6 at the time of his disappearance and was never found.
In 2003 Jose Ramos was charged with his kidnapping and
murder.
About two years ago, after feeling there was a lack in our
community for a program of this kind, I put together what I felt
would be something to fill the void.
There were and are other Child ID programs in our area, but
none as comprehensive as what I have established.
None even come close. After
many months of research, and a grant from the Monroe County
Sheriff’s Department, the Florida Masonic Child ID Program was
born. For those who
are unaware, the Masons are the World’s oldest Fraternity.
Formally established in 1717 in London, there are now over
four million members worldwide.
Key West has had a Masonic Lodge since 1845.
Most people have a family member or friend who is a Mason
and nearly everyone knows the Shriners, who are also Masons.
The Florida Masonic “Child ID Program” is now in
full swing. Since its
inception, just a month in a half ago, we have attended 3 events,
providing ID kits for 217 children.
The kit includes digital photos of the child, a digital
video, digital finger prints and a full description all on a CD.
We also provide a DNA sample and two laminated ID cards
(one for the parent and one for the child).
The kit is contained in a standard DVD case and has printed
information inside on how to protect your children and keep them
safe. All local law
enforcement agencies contact information is provided and since
everything is in digital format, all the information can be
disseminated very quickly in an emergency. No
information is ever retained by the Masons and a single hard copy
is provided to the parents. All
digital records are destroyed before proceeding to the next child,
papers shredded. Best
of all, we provide this kit completely free of charge to all
families who attend. Our
booth has constantly been the busiest one at these events, and we
took these cues to expand our program.
With a very generous donation from Nick and Suzie
Trivisanno, we were able to purchase two new Child ID Computers, a
color laser printer, a medical scale, as well as many of the
expendable supplies used in the kits.
We
are now working on getting two trailers.
A cargo trailer has been ordered for transporting all the
equipment. We
are also hoping to get a travel trailer donated to create an
indoor, air conditioned place to provide the program  during
outdoor events. Our
next event is Children’s Day on October 28th.
We expect to ID 200+ children that day, and I have set a
goal of ID’ing 1000 children before the first of the year.
We will offer this to service all the families of Monroe
County.
I will be working with Randy Acevedo, our school
superintendant, to bring the program directly to our schools.
Parents will be notified by the “Tuesday Newsletter” e
county’s voice messaging system.
This will give us the opportunity to work with larger
numbers of children in a convenient location.
Our goal is to ID 4000 children by 2009, about half of the
registered school children of Monroe County.
We will be providing this program to over 4000 children
annually. Since
children’s appearance changes very rapidly, we recommended that
the kit be updated every year.
With this in mind, the program can only grow and will go on
indefinitely.
This program is extremely important to our community.
Although in itself it will not prevent a child from
disappearing, it is a tool parents can use to talk to their
children about the dangers around them.
Families have waited in line for well over an hour to get
the kit. We know it is
important to them. Expansion
is our future. We
are currently working on providing information and instructional
videos to help families prevent their children from ever becoming
a victim. The
areas we are concerned with are sexual predators, child abductors,
and our newest threat, Internet predators.
We will work diligently to provide this information to keep
our children safe.
I hope this has shed light on the progress we have been
able to make. Many
members and businesses of our community have come forward to help.
The Masonic Child ID Program is absolutely a continuing
endeavor, and we will always need support and donations, so please
spread the word to your friends and business associates.
I am confident the families of our community will
acknowledge the importance of this free service, and will
appreciate our continued need for support.
1
Source:
Attorney General of the State of Washington, who did a study of
cases reported to law enforcement in 1997
2
http://offender.fdle.state.fl.us
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