Wednesday, March 27, 2002

Dogwood Festival puts spotlight on child safety

The Atlanta Dogwood Festival, the city's oldest continuing event, will offer families more than just great music and entertainment this year when it provides free child identification kits for the first time. The festival has partnered with Tony's Pizza to provide this service.

Representatives will be at the festival grounds from noon until 4 p.m. beginning April 12 through April 14 to help families create personalized I.D. kits. The families will take these kits home to keep in a safe place and use in the unlikely event their children are ever missing.

"We helped families create these kits at the A Taste of Minnesota festival in St. Paul last year, and we had phenomenal success," said John Beadle, President and chief operating officer of Tony's parent company, Minnesota-based Schwan's Consumer Brands of North America.

"We're excited that the Atlanta Dogwood Festival is our first expansion of this service outside of Minnesota. We believe it is extremely important that we contribute to anything that might protect our children, and we're proud to help support families because they play such a vital part of the basic American structure."

Last year, approximately 725,000 juveniles ­ or 2,000 children per day ­ were reported missing, according to the FBI's National Crime Information Center (NCIC). Very few of these children had personal data recorded or their fingerprints taken before they were lost -­ vital information that could have aided in the search for these children.

"Our goal is to equip as many parents and caregivers as possible with vital information about their children, such as their height, weight, eye color, and a current photo," said Mark Rehborg, national brand group manager for Tony's.

"When something happens to a child, many people don't have this information on hand, and finding it for the authorities can be overwhelming. Our Tony's I.D. kits will ensure that all the information is in one place and immediately available to parents and the police."

During the festival, Tony's will show how to collect photos, fingerprints, hair samples for DNA testing, and personal information such as blood type for the I.D. kits, which are made available by Fingerprint America.

Parents, grandparents and other caregivers are asked to store the completed kits in a secure place, such as their homes or safe deposit boxes. Families who have completed similar kits in the past for their children are encouraged to create updated ones.

"Every year one out of six missing children is found as a direct result of looking at the photos," said Rehborg. "We hope all parents will come out to the Dogwood Festival and take this important safety measure."

After families finish their ID kits, they are invited to stop by the Tony's 2002 Tour for an interactive adventure complete with games, prizes, and of course, pizza! Tony's will donate the proceeds of the pizza sold during the festival to Camp Sunshine, which provides recreational, educational and support programs for children with cancer and their families.

The 66th Annual Atlanta Dogwood Festival will take place April 12-14, 2002 in Piedmont Park. For more on the festival, visit www.dogwood.org.