Masons working to help protect area children

    The Masonic fraternity in Houlton has been busy this month working with some of the area schools and conducting the Grand Lodge of Maine sponsored “CHIPS” or the Child Identification Protection Service.
    Masonic District 1, which covers all of Aroostook County, has always been busy doing programs and this past May, the system went digital. All the information — the child’s name, address, parents’ names, fingerprints and a short video clip — is processed and burned on a DVD along with a dental swab and sent home with the kids to give to their parents for safe keeping. The parents also get two identification cards.
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GETTING READY — Alyssa Gould of GHCA waits with Clarence Jones for the interview to start during her ID process.
    Lee Oliver, the area administrator, believes this program can be of great assistance in the event a child gets lost or is abducted as the parents can bring this information packet to the area police and the information can be broadcast in seconds.
    Many questions are always brought up about the program, but the most common is “Where is the information stored?”
    Oliver states that once all information is logged into the computer and burned to the DVD, the computer has a special overwrite system built in that makes all recorded data unreadable. In other words, once the information is burned onto the DVD and the next batch of information for the next child is entered, all prior information is deleted.
    “The only con to that is if a parent notices an error on the ID or on the DVD after they get home,” Oliver said. “They would have to bring the child back to the program as none of the information is retained by the CHIPS officers. However, the pros greatly outweigh that con.”
    Since June 2011, the District 1 “CHIP team” has processed more than 400 kids with programs all over Aroostook County and also parts of Washington and Penobscot counties as well.
    The month of March was a first for a lot of families with the program going to the Wellington School in Monticello and the Greater Houlton Christian Academy in Houlton. This was the first time that a CHIPS program has been held at these schools.
    On March 12, the group was at the Wellington School and processed 43 kids. A week later on March 19, GHCA was host and another 40 children were processed. Another program will be held on March 27 at East Grand School in Danforth.
    For more information about the CHIPS program or to schedule a visit, please contact Lee Oliver at trestleboard96@yahoo.com or via phone at 532-4926.
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FINGERPRINTED — Parker Sherman of Greater Houlton Christian Academy gets fingerprinted by Tom McAfee, middle, and Bruce Folsom, left, as Jack Galda looks on.