The KlaasKids Foundation Print-A-Thon has been providing free Child Identification throughout the USA since 1994. Our oldest and most loyal sponsor, the St. Louis, Missouri based Dave Mungenast Auto Family has been hosting KlaasKids signature child safety event since 1996. This Saturday 10/15 marks our 15thannual Print-A-Thon in St. Louis, MO.
The Print-A-Thon is a high energy child safety event that utilizes 21st Century technology. KlaasKids fingerprints and photographs children, provides their parents with DNA Collection Kits, pro-active child safety information, and a nine-point-plan on what to do if a child disappears.
Always free to the public, the KlaasKids Print-A-Thon has been serving America’s families for more than a decade. Since 1994, the KlaasKids Print-A-Thon has fingerprinted and photographed more than 1,000,000 children at no cost to families and without data basing personal or private information. The Print-A-Thon is always underwritten by community minded sponsors like the Dave Mungenast Auto Family who wish to maintain safe communities and give back to their loyal customers.
The Print-A-Thon utilizes imaging systems originally developed for federal law enforcement agencies by Sentry Technology that integrate digitized computer technology to fingerprint and photograph children quickly without ink or film. Parents immediately receive an English or Spanish language 81/2 X 11 inch Bio-Doc® featuring forensic quality, magnified fingerprints, updated photograph, and blank form fields for personal and identifying information. The back of the Bio-Doc provides safety rules for kids, safety suggestions for parents, instructions for properly storing DNA samples using household items and the 9-step emergency plan. Since the Foundation does not database children’s personal or private information privacy is guaranteed. Parents receive the only existing copy of the “Bio-Doc”®.
On Saturday, October 15, KlaasKids will conduct Print-A-Thon’s at 4-separate Mungenast Automotive Family locations. KlaasKids is flying in our “A” Team to ensure that St. Louis continues to receive the high quality, professional Child ID service that Dave Mungenast and KlaasKids has been providing since 1996.
On event day one of our “A” Team coordinators will fingerprint and photograph children at each location from 9:00 am until 3:00 pm. Since it only takes between 1 and 2 minutes to serve each child, hundreds of families can take advantage of this free service during the course of the event. Because the Foundation utilizes computerized/digitized technology we are able to develop magnified, forensic quality fingerprints on children as young as 3-months old: a feat that no other system can duplicate. KlaasKids Foundation coordinators will answer child safety questions and distribute no cost child and parent safety information. Don’t miss out on this rare and unique opportunity.
Facilitating a Print-A-Thon is a win/win for all the parties involved. It allows our fantastic sponsors to fulfill social responsibility by creating safer communities. It provides parents with an opportunity to engage a safety dialog with their children in a fun and positive environment. However the biggest winners of all are the kids, because they receive tools that enable them to make choices and decisions that will help to avoid victimization in the first place. Individually, none of us has the power to effect profound change, but, by reaching out and linking arms, together, we can change the world.
I will travel to each location with kidnap survivor Midsi Sanchez to meet families, reacquaint with old friends and make new friends.