YMCA educates public with safety fair

The YMCA is known as a safe haven for children, and that was Saturday’s theme.

The YMCA, along with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, hosted a child safety fair.

Representatives spent the day educating the public about keeping kids safe, with a little added fun.

Kids walked away with smiles-safe kid cards, an identification card for parents in case their child goes missing.

The pictures are then loaded into the national database for missing and exploited children to help law enforcement track them.

Statistics say the cards help locate one in seven missing children.

“The more pictures that we get and the more pictures that we have in the database the more children we can find that go missing each year. So helping them is more important to us,” said Life Touch representative Erin Smith.

Deputies from the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Department and the Wilmington Fire Department were also on hand to give children safety tips for emergencies.