 Hello, I'm Leslie McVane. Welcome to CTN member highlights today. My guest is Michael Mercer from keeping kids safe Hi, Michael. You haven't been around for a while, but I know you've been busy Very busy and one of the big things coming up right now is in conjunction with the Deering Neighborhood Association Northeering Northeering. Do you want to tell us a little bit about what's happening there? Sure. It's exciting It's a kind of fun. It's a it's a 5k race to benefit keeping kids safe It'll be from keeping kids safe will be the beneficiary of all the proceeds and Anytime fitness is the primary business. That's running the race in associated with the North Deering Neighborhood Association So it'll be a 5k race August 31st and the theme is 80s So if anybody lived through the 80s the neon the big hair the leg warmers If you're encouraged to dress up and then have some fun with this even put on your best Bon Jovi or Madonna That sounds like fun. I kind of miss the 80s. I had little kids then and I was like, what are the 80s? But it sounds like a lot of fun Some of our viewers may not know what keeping kids safe is could you tell us a little bit about it? Sure, and then we'll talk more about the race. Absolutely. We're a nonprofit organization based here in Maine North Deering area and What we do is we provide education and awareness to parents teachers And children about the about the dangers of online predators. We do cyber bullying. We talk about bullying We do child Identifications we go in we ID children within we put information on these and a USB port called a smart ID stick That way if the child does go missing the police department has all the information they need to make sure that they get the information out Super fast and then time is is a venestine's when it comes to a missing child. So we we teach and So I like to look at it. We're I'm a retired police officer. So this is a way for me to be Rather proactive rather than reactive. Yeah, and it's so timely right now There's a lot in the news almost every day about a child missing bullying something Unfortunately, we have to be dealing with that and you've chose a really proactive way to get people So that they're a little more comfortable if something does happen There's a way to to track them right there's a way to track in a lot of you know This is just to have the peace of mind that that information is there in case you need it You know, we really have to try to get by the you know, not in my backyard syndrome You know, it's not gonna happen here Because we hate to think that anything would happen to our children But we know what we buy insurance for our house not thinking our house is going to go on We're gonna catch on fire. We buy it just in case it does You know, we buy auto insurance not thinking we're going to go out and get into an accident So, you know, this these are insurance for our children. It's so little little like I said, we're nonprofits So it's not like we're making a huge amount of money like these insurance companies But this is something small that the family can do to make sure that information is available to the people that are out They're looking for your child if that child is missing Well, that's well said Michael and let's get back to the race because this is in part gonna help fund what you're doing So how do people find out about it? Where does it begin? It's August 31st at 7 a.m. If you haven't registered yet You can register at the day on the day of the race at 7 a.m. It's kind of preliminary you can get there get stretched Registrar's $25 you can register online at if you go to www.keepingkidssafe.us you can register through our website or any time fitness It's like I said, it's a 5k. It'll be going Bobber and Street over to summit to Allen Avenue in the back down where we're going to have where parkers will be having a Buffet a lunch buffet that's included and so all the runners and families can go over there for a nice free buffet And they'll be there'll be giveaways. There'll be raffles and all sorts of family fun so walkers if you if you can't run get out there put some neon on and Walk the race, and you'll at least look like you're going And get out there with the family and just you know remember the 80s and and it is for a good cause it helps us Give back to the community which North Deering Association Is about is good partnerships with with community? Businesses and residents well this sounds like a wonderful collaboration, and I hope it's very successful for you Thank you for being here. Thank you very much