Messy fingers translated into safer children Saturday. A KidCare photo identification event was just one of many taking place in Natchez Saturday in honor of Make a Difference Day.

At KidCare, volunteers photographed and fingerprinted children and placed the information in a booklet with other vital statistics on each child.

Parents store the information in a safe place for use by law enforcement in the event their child is ever missing.

Donna Vines brought her three children, ages 11, 2 and 7 months, to be fingerprinted. Vines said she did the same for her oldest daughter when she was younger. She described KidCare as one of the best things she had ever done, because of the safety issue.

&uot;You never know now days what’s going to happen with the babies,&uot; she said.

Many of the children found it was fun to play in the fingerprint ink.

Four officers with the Natchez Police Department assisted with the fingerprinting.

&uot;They think it’s a lot of fun,&uot;&160;said Myrtle Page of the Natchez Police Department. &uot;They love mess.&uot;

&uot;(It’s) just like playing with finger paint, (isn’t) it,&uot; said Detention Officer Paul Freeman to one young child he was fingerprinting.

Freeman said it is harder to fingerprint a young child than an adult because they hold their fingers so close together.

They also tend to get the paint all over their mother’s clothes, he said.

But one by one, the volunteers fingerprinted about 100 children Saturday.

Carrie Jackson said she brought her 10-year-old son, Willie, to KidCare because he is getting to an age where he spends more time away from her. &uot;Once they’re out of your sight, you can’t always say they’re going to do what you tell them to do,&uot; she said.

The Natchez-Adams County Learn and Serve Partnership sponsored KidCare. Students from Natchez High School and members of Delta Sigma Theta sorority also helped.

Elsewhere in Natchez, members of the Mayor’s Youth Council celebrated the first Rally Against Racism at the Main Street Marketplace downtown.

Students from area high schools spoke about the need to come together to find prejudice.

&uot;I’m not here today to remind you of the past,&uot; said Auri Jones, a student at Adams County Christian School. &uot;We can make a change. Our generation — my generation — can change the future … They say let bygones be bygones,&uot; he said.&160;&uot;The truth is, I have no idea what the bygones were. … Discrimination is a matter of the heart. The only way we’re going to change is to get the hearts of the people right.&uot;

Around the Miss-Lou, many other Make a Difference Day activities took place Saturday, including a barbecue fundraiser in Duncan Park and a fundraiser for CrimeStoppers and school uniforms at Memorial Park.

Berthenia Jackson, a teacher at the Central Alternative School, said her school choir performed at the Adams&160;County Nursing Home Friday, for Make a Difference Day.

&uot;The residents really enjoyed it,&uot; Jackson said. &uot;They asked them to come back for Thanksgiving and Christmas.&uot;

Kerry Whipple contributed to this report.