Megan Gillander, the new youth services coordinator at Oneida Public Library, inaugurates the premier edition of the monthly program Family Super Saturday, for children 2 years old to young elementary-school students and their parents or guardians, Saturday, Nov. 12, at 11:00 a.m. with a special guest from the Madison County Sheriff’s Office who will be issuing free of charge Operation Safe Child identification cards.
Gillander has planned an hour-long program of songs, stories and activities around the theme of safety and police protection. Included will be a “fingerprint station,” where the older children can learn more about fingerprint identification and test out the assumption that no two fingerprints are exactly alike.
A member of the Community Services Department of the Sheriff’s Office will be on hand from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. to take children’s fingerprints with the latest digital technology and photos with a high-resolution camera. Within a few minutes he will be able to issue a child’s “Safe Child” card.
The card contains a child’s name, description, fingerprint images of both index fingers. Parents or legal guardians can also decide to have the information stored in a database at the Division of Criminal Justice Services in Albany. That information would be retrieved and digitally sent to police around the state in case a missing child report is made.
According to the Sheriff’s Office, Operation Safe Child was created in 2005 through a partnership among State Police, the N.Y.S. Sheriff’s Association and the N.Y.S. Association of Chiefs of Police in conjunction with the state’s Criminal Justice Services Division.
The program is free and open to the public. For more information, stop by the Oneida Library, 220 Broad St. in Oneida, or contact Megan Gillander at (315) 363-3050.