State and local area Masons are once again offering a free child safety ID program at the Rockland Home and Garden Show at Rockland Community College Friday through Sunday, Feb. 10 to 12.  The safety program sponsors are Athelstane Masonic Lodge No. 839 in Pearl River, the Orange and Rockland Masonic District Association and the Masonic Safety ID Committee of the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of New York.

The Masonic Safety ID program is provided in support of the National Amber Alert Program under the auspices of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.  Teens, college students and adults are eligible to participate as well.  

No advance reservations are required for the community service, which will take place Friday, Feb. 10 from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. and Sat. Feb. 11 from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday, Feb. 12 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.  Admission to the area in the Eugene Levy Field House at RCC where the Safety ID will take place is free of change and parking is also free.

The organizations held a similar program last year at the Palisades Center Mall in West Nyack that drew several hundred participants.  The Grand Lodge of Masons has been providing free safety IDs for more than 12 years and annually provides some 50,000 digital photo IDs, electronic fingerprinting and computer data discs to parents and guardians in the event a child or adult family member goes missing.  It is estimated that each year in New York State some 20,000 children are reported missing to local authorities.