Patent Application
20090026754
This invention relates to child safety at social gatherings, and more particularly to a method and system for ensuring that a child attending a social function leaves the social function with a predetermined parent, custodian or other trusted adult, and/or to ensure that the host(s) have appropriate contact information for the child guest in the event of an emergency.
Children attending a social function, especially a large social function, and more especially a large social function at a location other than the home of a responsible adult host, can be susceptible to abduction or being otherwise harmed by strangers. This is especially true for younger children. Additionally, because many children are extremely curious and often much less adverse to accepting risks, there is a significant potential that a child may become injured, ill or otherwise encounter an emergency wherein it is necessary or at least desirable that a predetermined trusted adult responsible for care of the child is contacted. Even for smaller gatherings, it is not always possible for the host(s) to know the parents and/or other trusted adults responsible for care of all of the children attending the hosted social function, and/or to have all of the appropriate contact information readily available in the event of an emergency.
It is believed that there are not any known systems or products especially adapted to ensure that a host of a social function having child guests who are not accompanied by their parents or any other trusted adult responsible for care of the child will have appropriate and sufficient information to be able to contact the parent or other trusted adult in the event of an emergency and to make sure that the child guest leaves the event with a predetermined parent or other trusted adult.
A known identification system for children traveling as a group under the guidance of a teacher is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,765,875. With this system, each child carries an identification tag on a frangible length of bead chain. Each tag has first identifying indicia such as an unduplicated number unique to the particular child carrying the tag, and second identifying indicia providing information relating to the group. This system is specifically adapted for use with children traveling as a group with a teacher and/or other trusted adult(s) and cannot be easily modified for use by hosts of a social event to ensure that a child guest leaves the social event with a predetermined trusted adult, and/or to ensure that the host has appropriate contact information in the event of an emergency.
In one aspect of the invention, a system for accounting for children at a social function and/or for facilitating emergency notification of a trusted adult responsible for care of the child includes a plurality of guest tags having blank spaces for providing the name of a child that is a guest at the social function, the name of a predetermined parent or other trusted adult responsible for care of the child guest and who will take custody of the child at the time the child leaves the social function, and contact information for a parent or other trusted adult who may be contacted in the event of an emergency during the social function; and instructions (e.g., indicia proximate the blank lines) to fill in the blanks with the appropriate information and deliver the completed guest tag to a host of the social function at the time that the child guest is brought to the social function.
In a further aspect of the invention, the system further comprises instructions for the host of the social function to collect and retain each completed guest tag before admitting the child guest to the social function, and to retain the guest tag until the child guest has left the social function with the predetermined parent or other trusted adult.
In a still further aspect of the invention, each guest tag is a portion of a frangible invitation.
In another aspect of the invention, the system further includes a binder for retaining a plurality of the guest tags together during the social function.
In another aspect of the invention, each of the guest tags includes a blank space for the signature of the parent or other trusted adult to indicate that the custody of the child has been transferred from the host to the parent or other trusted adult and that the child guest associated with the guest tag has left the social function with the predetermined parent or other trusted adult.
These and other features, advantages and objects of the present invention will be further understood and appreciated by those skilled in the art by reference to the following specification, claims and appended drawings.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, there is shown in
In the illustrated embodiment, binder 25 is a metal or plastic ring having a hinge 26 for pivoting openable ring sections 27 and 28. Distal ends of ring sections 27 and 28 opposite the hinge ends may be provided with interlocking barbs or other structure for locking the ring sections in a closed configuration to securely retain guest tags 20. Alternatively, other binders, such as loose-leaf binders, clasps, clips, or other suitable devices may be employed.
Each guest tag 20 includes a blank line 29 for filling in the name of an invited guest to the social function along with suitable indicia 30 proximate blank line 29 to indicate that line 29 is for the guest's name, a blank line 31 for emergency contact information along with appropriate indicia 32 indicating that line 31 is for emergency contact information (e.g., a telephone number), and a blank line 33 for filing in the name of a parent or other trusted adult that will accompany the child guest from the social function, along with appropriate indicia 34 indicating that line 33 is for the name of the trusted adult that will accompany the child guest from the social function. In certain embodiments, guest tag 20 will further include a blank line 35 that is to be signed or initialed by the predetermined parent or other trusted adult indicated in blank line 33 when that parent or other trusted adult takes custody of the child guest and leaves with the child guest. Indicia 36 proximate line 35 is provided to indicate that the parent is to sign or initial blank line 35 to signify that the parent or other trusted adult has picked up the child guest from the social function. This allows the host to keep track of and to account for all of the child guests at the social function. Each tag 20 may also include an opening or aperture 37 though which a binder (e.g., ring 25) may be inserted for retaining tags 20 together.
Each packaged safety kit 10 contains a predetermined quantity of guest tags 20, such as 10, 20 or 50, and a single binder or ring 25. Guest tags 20 and binder or ring 25 are preferably packaged in transparent plastic (e.g., a plastic bag or plastic wrap), which allows the contents of the packaged safety kit to be easily viewed while on a display rack.
In accordance with an alternative embodiment of the invention, which may be packaged in similar quantities and in a similar manner to guest tags 20 of
The packaged safety kits of this invention, in addition to including a plurality of guest tags 20 or frangible invitation cards 38, will desirably include instructions on their use. For example, a set of instructions to the purchaser of the packaged safety kit 10 may recommend that a guest tag 20 be included with a conventional invitation card, and that the purchaser instruct (e.g., on the conventional invitation card) that the parent of the invited child guest complete and return the included guest tag 20 to the named host(s) before or at the time that the child guest is brought to the social function to which the child guest has been invited. In addition, appropriate instructions may be provided on either the front or backside of the guest tag 20 and/or frangible invitation card 38.
The above description is considered that of the preferred embodiment(s) only. Modifications of the invention will occur to those skilled in the art and to those who make or use the invention. Therefore, it is understood that the embodiment(s) shown in the drawings and described above are merely for illustrative purposes and not intended to limit the scope of the invention, which is defined by the following claims as interpreted according to the principles of patent law, including the doctrine of equivalents.
