Candy, carousels and, yep, ID cards

Lolita Harper

Emergency child identification sheets are something every parent

hopes they never use but is something they can’t afford to be

without.

Two booths at the Orange County Fair, the Orange County Sheriff’s

Department and the Masons of California, offer free identification

sheets, with pictures, thumb prints and DNA for parents to keep in

case their worst nightmare comes true.

“Parents can put these [sheets] away in a safe place and hope they

never need them,” said Mason Al Korn, who helped man the booth

Saturday afternoon.

Aunt Patty Thews said she and her nieces and nephew were walking

along and the Masons recruited them. It sounded like a good idea and

the children were anxious to get their thumbs scanned, so they gave

it a try.

“Cool that was fun,” nephew Austin Dodge said.

As cool as it was, the 9-year-old admitted he wasn’t sure what it

was for.

“I think it’s an [identification] for, like, if you get lost or

something,” Austin said.

Getting lost would be the best case scenario, officials said.

Unfortunately, information on the card can also be used to identify

remains. A digital camera takes the child’s picture and a scanner

copies the prints from the left and right thumb. Parents fill out

their child’s information, including name, nickname, address,

doctors, dentists, weight, height, hair, etc. and attach a swab of

DNA on the sheet.

Mason Peter Jantz said the Grand Lodge has sponsored free

identification programs since 1994. The service has advanced over the

years, from messy ink fingerprints to high-tech digital equipment but

the idea remains the same. About 400 children per day are

fingerprinted, Jantz said, and he hopes to have given a sheet to

about 2,000 people by the time the fair is over.

Bernadine de Sevilla wasted no time getting her son’s

identification card. Three-month-old Andrew de Sevilla sat in his

mother’s lap, while she gently placed his tiny thumb on the scanner.

She gently tickled his tummy while his picture was being taken and

Andrew displayed a wide grin of gums.

Officials at the Orange County Sheriff’s Department booth said

they could not comment to the press but offered a worksheet for

parents to fill out. The handout gives explicit instructions for how

to gather a child’s DNA, by rubbing a cotton swab on the inside of a

child’s cheek, and fingerprints.

Both booths are in the Orange County Building at the fair -- just

east of the Heritage Stage -- and will be there for its duration.