Proclamation 5563—National Child Identification and Safety Information Day, 1986

The American people are becoming increasingly aware of the incidence of abduction and exploitation of the children of the United States. In order to combat this threat, many private organizations and their dedicated volunteers have established programs to teach safety measures to children.

All across our country, in towns, cities, and rural areas alike, corporations, civic associations, church groups, and individual citizens are working together to strengthen the American family. Too often, we neglect to warn and protect these families from the most devastating blow they can suffer, the discovery that a child is missing. Many communities have neighborhood watch programs to help guard their possessions from theft. Should we do anything less for our children? Protecting the lives of these innocents is a community-wide responsibility. As part of this effort, many parents have established fingerprint and other identification records that will aid in locating their children should the unthinkable ever happen.

To focus national attention on this problem during Halloween, when parents are especially aware of possible threats to the safety of their children, the Congress, by Public Law 99-520, has designated October 31, 1986, as "National Child Identification and Safety Information Day" and authorized and requested the President to issue a proclamation in observance of this occasion.

Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim October 31, 1986, as National Child Identification and Safety Information Day, and I call upon the people of the United States to observe such day with appropriate and safe ceremonies and activities.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this thirty-first day of October, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-six, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and eleventh.

RONALD REAGAN