KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – Kalamazoo County Clerk & Register of Deeds Meredith Place is inviting residents to a public celebration of the 5th anniversary of the Larry Provancher Kalamazoo County ID program on Friday, May 5, from 4 to 7 p.m.
“In its first five years of operation, the County ID card has successfully helped over five thousand Kalamazoo County residents be recognized and connect with services,” said Place. “We invite the public to celebrate these milestones and pick up their own ID at the event’s on-site mobile unit.”
The celebration will take place at El Concilio, located at 930 Lake Street in Kalamazoo.
The Kalamazoo County Identification Card is a photo ID available to Kalamazoo County residents ages 11 and up and enables holders to connect with public safety, civic, and community services.
“Government-issued identification has become a norm across the country. The absence of an ID makes it difficult to do many of the essential tasks that the rest of us take for granted,” said Dr. Francisco Villegas, Chair of the ID Program Advisory Board and Associate Professor of Sociology at Kalamazoo College. “This project materialized through the efforts of countless community organizers in Kalamazoo who saw the need to address the inequities and exclusions inherent in the way the state has formulated the criteria to receive a Michigan ID.”
In March 2023, the Kalamazoo County Board of Commissioners renamed the program the “Larry Provancher Kalamazoo County ID Program” in honor of the late County Commissioner Larry Provancher, who championed the program’s creation during his time in office.
Provancher passed away in October 2022.
