Canadian kids get “Masoni-chipped” while visiting with Santa

Kids get last-minute requests in to Santa

The event also served as a chance for parents to have their children documented by the MasoniCHIP program.

Woodstock Sentinel | Dec 23, 2008

By Elliot Ferguson

Pancakes, sausage and Santa Claus were on the menu Saturday morning.

Dozens of children got their last-minute Christmas wishes in as the Woodstock Agricultural Society held its annual breakfast with Santa at the Oxford Auditorium.

“They’ve had breakfast with Santa at the market before but this is the first year we’ve had it here,” said Fred Curry, president of the society.

“We’ve had a very good turnout.

“We thought there was an interest in the community and we’re always trying to promote the market and things happening here at the Woodstock Fairgrounds.

The event also served as a chance for parents to have their children documented by the MasoniCHIP program.

Masons and volunteers from across Oxford were on hand to help make identification kits for local children.

The MasoniCHIP program provides parents with their child’s dental imprints, fingerprints, still photos and a short video.

“It’s a child identification program,” explained Tyler Deheer of Princeton’s Blenheim 108 Masonic Lodge, one of the organizers of Saturday’s program.

All the equipment needed to make an identification profile of a child was contained in a single briefcase, including a laptop computer, a webcam, a microphone and a fingerprint scanner.

“The parents keep all the information. It comes on a CD and a piece of paper.

“It puts everything in a neat package,” Deheer said, adding that the material could be given to police in the event the child goes missing.

“It holds just about anything you could use to identify a child.”

The program originated in the United States and Masons in Ontario have taken the lead role in implementing the program in this province.

Almost 55 children are reported missing in Ontario every day. According the Canada’s Our Missing Children network and Ontario Child Find, a good quality photo of the missing child is often the most effective tool.