Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 26, 1992 TAG: 9202270402
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: W11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHARLES STEBBINS WEST CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
LIBRARY'S DINOSAUR GETS NEW LIFE
The Glenvar Public Library has a new visitor - a wooden dinosaur, a descendant of a cardboard ancestor that fell apart a decade ago.The latter-day dinosaur is painted in "dragon green" and strikes an imposing presence in the lobby.
It is almost 6 feet tall and 8 feet long, and it will be named in a contest on March 16 - "Green Day" at the library. The event, being held in connection with St. Patrick's Day, begins at 4 p.m. The winner of the name contest will be announced at 5 p.m.
The beast is called "Rex" by the Glenvar High School students who built it under the auspices of the Technology Students' Association.
Pat Carter, children's librarian at the Glenvar branch, was the driving force behind replacing the dinosaur.
About 10 years ago, she said, the library collected almost 5,000 labels from products made by the Campbell Soup Co. to get the original dinosaur.
"We wanted a dinosaur but we didn't know it was going to be cardboard," she said.
At first it looked nice.
"We were real excited about it," she said. "It was beautiful, and the children loved it."
But after a few weeks the legs began spreading out, and before six months had gone by, the thing had collapsed - reminiscent of the real dinosaurs that became extinct eons ago.
Carter said the cardboard pieces of the ill-fated dinosaur were shoved into a closet, where they remained undisturbed for a decade.
Last fall she got the idea of using the pieces as a pattern to build something more substantial. After several inquiries she wound up at Glenvar High's technology, department, which agreed to try to duplicate the dinosaur.
Teachers Paul Coleman and Mike Beamer guided the project in the school's shop, where about 30 students in grades 7 through 12 worked on it at various times over about four months.
Coleman said the project was educational for the students in more ways than one.
"They had a lot of detail work to do with a scroll saw," he said. "And because this was for the library, they felt they were doing something for the community."
When Carter saw the finished product, she proclaimed it "a good job. . . . I'm proud of it."
She also said it is a good community cooperative effort.
"I'd like to see more of the schools work with libraries," she said.
The materials for the dinosaur cost about $30 raised through donations and the sale of books donated by library patrons.
Carter also said the library acquired a VCR, coffee maker and a picnic water cooler through the Campbell's Labels for Education Program. These items, she said, have turned out better than the dinosaur.
The cardboard dinosaur, she added, is no longer listed in the Campbell product catalog.
The library now is saving labels for a portable public address system, which requires 24,250 labels. About 6,000 labels have been received.
"It took us three years to get the VCR for 18,000 labels, so I imagine it will take up four years to get enough for the PA system."
Carter said the Glenvar Library may have been first allowed to participate in the label program that was started primarily for schools in 1973. The library had to write for permission to get into the program.
A spokesman for Campbell said 70,000 to 80,000 schools and libraries now participate in the program, getting equipment ranging from two rubber kickballs, for as few as 1,000 labels, to a 15-passenger van for 995,000 labels.