Five-year-old Tyler McHenry said “it felt kind of weird” having images of his fingerprints saved. It was a “left-righty” feeling, he explained.
Tyler left the Argonne American Legion Post 180 with some candy, and his mom Linsey kept the fingerprints, courtesy of volunteers running an Ident-a-kid station on Saturday.
“I just really appreciate the fact that the community does it,” the Great Bend woman said.
Henry Hall from Hoisington is almost 18 months old. His parents, Logan and Kelsey, took a break from Christmas shopping to get his Ident-a-Kid kit.
Ident-a-kid has been around some 30 years. It allows parents to collect information about their children, including fingerprints and a DNA sample, which they can take with them for safekeeping. They are encouraged to complete the Ident-a-kid kit, adding information such as a photo, hair sample and physical description.
“The parents keep all of the information,” said JP Postlethwaite, one of the volunteers from the three groups that operated the Ident-a-kid station Saturday morning. Postlethwaite is a member of all three: the American Legion, Crime Stoppers of Barton County and Great Bend, and the Barton County Sheriff’s Office Reserves.
Around 30 families took advantage of the free service Saturday.