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| Safety event draws more than 30 children |
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| News | |||
| Written by Aaron Cedeño | |||
| Wednesday, 18 November 2009 08:00 | |||
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Mika MicKitrick’s family was having to pull out all the stops. While standing in front of a camera on Saturday, the two-year-old shifted and squirmed, unwilling to stand still and have his picture taken.  That is, until someone handed him a cell phone. Suddenly oblivious to all else, his face the very picture of concentration, Mika studied his newfound toy. Which, of course, presented his caretakers with another problem: Now that he’s holding still, how does one go about getting him to look at the camera? The answer? With patience, whistles, and a whole lot of arm waving. All at once, Mika obliged his audience, staring straight into the camera with a dazzling smile, and the small crowd around him burst into applause. Fortunately, the effort was well worth the reward. Mika was one of more than 30 local children to take part in a child identification program event on Saturday at the Louisburg Police Station. Offered free of charge by Mary Flinn and Donna Lee – a pair of Louisburg residents and real-estate agents with Reece & Nichols – as well as the Louisburg Masonic Lodge, the CHIP program worked to give parents a leg up, in the event of their child’s disappearance. The kits are comprised of several unique identifying elements, including a picture, video, finger prints, DNA swab and dental impressions. If a child goes missing, parents can then provide law enforcement with a ready-made set of identifiers as they begin their search. “Hopefully, the parents will never have to use that,” said Louisburg Police Chief Ron Anderson. “But, again, that gives law enforcement a good starting point instead of just saying ‘Yeah, these are the physical descriptors of a child.’ This is a lot more precise and a lot better identifier for us to use.” This is not the first community event that Flinn and Lee have sponsored in Louisburg. In October, the duo brought about 300 visitors to Cedar Cove Feline Sanctuary for a day of fun. While that event was great, Flinn said they wanted to do something a little more “important” this time around. The CHIP program is an area of particular focus for Masons nationwide, and one that is growing rapidly as it expands from lodge to lodge. Sterling Hornbuckle, past grand master of all Masons in Kansas and a Louisburg resident, has been instrumental in bringing the program to the area and, indeed, the entire state. So when someone pointed Flinn and Lee in his direction, the Masons were only too eager to help. “I am so grateful that we were hooked up with Sterling, because my gosh those guys did it really first class,” Flinn said. “I think it went great,” Hornbuckle added, of the event. “We had some good help, the (Louisburg High School National Honor Society) helped and they always do a good job.” With this one now behind them, Flinn said that they would like to continue to host community events both fun and productive in nature. As Louisburg residents themselves, she said, this is home. They want to keep finding ways to make a difference, and not just with Louisburg’s youth, but with its young adults as well. “It’s probably almost even more important for big kids,” she said, of the CHIP kits. “Because they might be going off on a ski trip, or to Mexico for spring break. It would have been really great if we had some young adults.”
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Comments (1)
Scott: ...
This is a great thing that Miss Flinn and Miss Lee put together.This is giving to the community that they work in and is a great thing for the parents that particpated in. I am truly pleased that a couple of realators took the time to do this when they could be out trying to sell houses. I beleive this is the kind of real- estate agents I would like to be dealing with when they take the time out to support worthy causes that will help a parent in a terrible time (which I hope will never happen to any one). Lets please support those who try to make things a little bit better in their community. Thank you Miss Flinn and Miss Lee and everyone else that was involved for this worthy community service.
1
November 18, 2009
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