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May is Child Safety MONTH!!!!
Please "take 25" minutes to discuss safety precautions with your children! The NCMEC can help...
What is Take 25?
Take 25 is a preventive child safety campaign created by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) in honor of National Missing Children’s Day. Annually honored on May 25th, this day serves as a reminder to the nation to make child safety a national priority.
Designed to raise awareness of the issues surrounding missing and exploited children, the Take 25 campaign encourages parents, guardians, educators, and others to take 25 minutes to talk to children about safety. With a focus on prevention, Take 25 provides communities with free safety resources including safety tips, conversation starters, and engaging activities. Take 25’s resources are available free of charge and can be found at local Take 25 events.
In 2007, NCMEC joined forces with more than 100 local and national organizations to launch the Take 25 campaign. With the help of our partner organizations, more than 375 Take 25 child safety events were hosted in communities across the United States and abroad. While this was a great achievement for the first year, the Take 25 campaign has continued to grow each year, hosting more than 7,000 events in 2011. Since its inception a total of 13,000 Take 25 events have been hosted in nearly 4,000 cities throughout the United States and abroad.
Please follow the link below for conversation starters and helpful tools regarding Take 25:
http://www.take25.org/page.asp?page=88
Brad Fowler—Road Warrior—and 2011 MoCHIP Coordinator of the Year!
Right off the bat you’re probably asking: why Road Warrior? There are a few layers to this title earned by MoCHIP team #6 though they all point back to their leader, Brad Fowler.
Brad came to MoCHIP before he joined Masonry. Yes, you read that right. Having volunteered at a MoCHIP event and becoming enamored with the craft and the goodwill being brought into the community, something tangible, something he could contribute to, he and his father decided to join Masonry and were initiated on the same day (and proof that the MoCHIP program has aided in lifting the veil of mystery and skepticism that has delineated Freemasonry for so long, and appealing to younger members, or in this case two new members).
Brad joined Ivanhoe Lodge #446 in 2007 and is currently Senior Warden. He is also a member of Christian Lodge #392 in Oak Grove. “I love the ritual,” says Brad, “I am always going to study clubs.” And Brad also enjoyed attending MoCHIP events, to the point that then Regional Coordinator, Will Huff, suggested it was time for a yellow shirt. Brad didn’t know what this meant at the time, but quickly realized he had been drafted to the MoCHIP team, Kansas City area, number 6.
A proud member of MoCHIP team #6, Brad and Will worked the Kansas City Masonic Lodge circuit promoting MoCHIP with a PowerPoint presentation they created. Their passion was contagious, engaging steadfast team members and masonic brothers, Mark Hamilton and Dave Dowell, both of Ivanhoe Lodge #446. Before long, and out of necessity baring the pleas of administrator/event logistic coordinator Lori Cichielo, this quartet affirmed their willingness to travel wherever they were needed regardless of the distance or hazards getting there, as realized on March 7, 2009. On his way to Leeton for a MoCHIP event, driving in a late season snowstorm, Brad had an accident that totaled his car. Fortunately he was mostly unharmed, however as result of his heroic efforts to carry forth his commitment to MoCHIP, the Masonic Children’s Foundation adopted a new policy regarding inclement weather. “Road Warrior” Brad and his crew are now required to use greater caution, cancelling an event if necessary.
When Regional Coordinator Will Huff stepped down from his position due to work constraints, Brad readily stepped in and assumed all responsibilities for team #6, including the creation of a Web site to keep team members informed. Brad’s team was also instrumental in helping MoCHIP achieve a major milestone. On May 19, 2010, team #6 in conjunction with East Gate Lodge #630 ID’d 13 year old Kaylee, MoCHIPs 100,000th child processed through the comprehensive program. This was an exciting time for everyone involved in MoCHIP, to see the program grow from its humble beginnings of borrowed laptops and a dozen dedicated masons traveling the state (among them Grand Master John Hess!) to 90 laptops, 7 teams and nearly 19,000 volunteers carrying forth the MoCHIP mission!
Wherever team #6 goes they are wholly embraced! As a favor, Brad and his entourage traveled to Kimberling City 236 miles south of their territory. Now an annual event, team 6 is always requested by the brothers at Tablerock, and the Road Warriors would be miffed if we didn’t let them cross boundaries!
We are now booking both 2012 & 2013!
Many areas are booked for the Spring season.
Please call 636.530.6069 before booking.
PARENTS PLEASE...
We urge all parents to do the only proactive thing they can do to safeguard their children (in addition to considerable caution) PLEASE have your child ID'd. Amber alert compatible programs such as MoCHIP and other state CHIP programs can have your child's vital information, digital photos and fingerprints throughout the country in minutes, and the difference between a positive result and the unthinkable!
Visit www.mochip.org for ID event's in MO or www.masonichip.org to find a program in your state.
Please visit our "MoCHIP Tidbits" page addition!
A page that provides interesting information about MoCHIP!
Updated: May 16, 2011
Welcome to the MO Child ID & Protection Program!
Thank you for visiting MOCHIP.ORG. Our program is a comprehensive child identification and protection tool designed to give families a measure of protection against the ever increasing problem of missing children. This program is provided free of charge to every family who wishes to participate.
It is our sincerest hope that no family will need the resource provided in our packets, but if the need should arise we believe the information that we provide from our program will be instrumental to law enforcement agencies in the recovery of a missing child.
The Missouri Freemasons schedule and present this fine program to communities throughout Missouri. MOCHIP is a part of the National Masonichip network (http://www.masonichip.org/) sponsored by the Conference of Grand Masters of Masons in North America. All identifying items generated at MOCHIP events are placed in a pack and given to the parent or guardian to take home for safe keeping. Should their child become missing, the pack can then be provided to law enforcement to aid in recovery and identification. The Missouri Freemasons keep nothing but the permission form signed by the parent prior to participation in the event.
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