AMY SZPARA

PHOTO 1: Halli Edrington, 4, of LaPlace, lets Lanard Robinet of the sheriff’s office take her hand for fingerprinting, a safety measure her family opted to take since LaPlace Ford was offering the service to area residents. (Staff Photos by Amy Szpara) LAPLACE – Children filled the front room of LaPlace Ford and waited in line to put their tiny fingers to a black ink pad and press out prints, while others ate popcorn, drank soda and admired the balloons tied to their wrists. The younger children knew only that they would get snacks and balloons in turn for the fingerprints but most of the older kids understood their parents and community leaders were taking measures to possibly save their lives. “It’s a little bit of insurance,” said Vernice Morgan, as her 7-year-old son took his turn getting printed. “In case anything ever happens, we’ll have it on file. It’s in case you get lost,” she said as she turned to her son. “They’ll be able to find you better.” “By my fingerprints?” Joshua Morgan asked her as he washed the ink from his fingers. PHOTO 2: Joshua Morgan, 7, of LaPlace, gets fingerprinted by Cpl. Loma Linda Michel for records his mother will keep on file in case of emergency. LaPlace Ford and the St. John Parish Sheriff’s Office recently hosted fingerprinting at the dealership. In a team effort to provide fingerprinting in St. John Parish, Cliff Lubin, owner and general manager of LaPlace Ford, the St. John Parish Sheriff’s Office and Parish President Nickie Monica, joined together to make the event a reality. An advertisement for the event began running on a local television channel for a couple of weeks leading up to the day, and parents were able to bring their children from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. to have a photograph taken and to have the child fingerprinted. “We’ve been non-stop,” said SJPSO Cpl. Loma Linda Michel, who had the job of filling the individual cards with fingerprints, taking the little hands and flattening out prints on the paper. “This is the first time we’ve done this,” said Lubin. “Our company is actively involved in community projects, and management thought it would be a good project to do. It’s endorsed by Ford and Ford dealerships are having this nationally. There’s not enough we can do to keep our community safe.” Lubin said Sheriff Wayne L. Jones was on-board from the beginning. “A while back, Cliff called about it. We said we’d be willing to do the fingerprinting and photographing,” said SJPSO Lt. Greg “Za” Maurin. “That’s part of community relations. “We said we’d do it if they provided the balloons, popcorn and soft drinks. We provided the manpower and the cards, and we’ve been real busy. We’ll have about 100 kids by the time we stop. It’s been real steady.” At 1 p.m., approximately 75 children had been processed by the deputies. “We’ll probably do something like this once a quarter. We’re just giving a little bit back to the community,” said Lubin. “So many projects fail because they’re not supported by the local parish sheriff’s office, but they’ve been supportive here. “It was a three-way effort between us, the sheriff’s office and the parish president.” Halli Edrington, 4, of LaPlace got her picture snapped and patiently let her prints be taken. Her father, Craig Edrington, said, “It’s just to get her fingerprinted in case she’s ever lost. I know that sometimes even the dental records aren’t enough.” Nicole Morrow, 10, of LaPlace, was old enough to understand the purpose of getting her prints taken. “It’s just in case I get lost or something happens to me so they can always go to the cops and show them,” she said, as her father, Duke Morrow, a LaPlace Ford employee, nodded at her understanding of the importance of it. Justin Schnyder, 2, of Reserve also walked away with popcorn and a balloon, after he sat still for his picture and the fingerprinting procedure. His mother, Ingrid Schnyder, said, “I thought it was a good opportunity for us to get this done. I’ve been wanting to do it and have been putting it off for a while. “This was a great opportunity to do it now.”