Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, October 6, 1994                   TAG: 9412010012
SECTION: NEIGHBORS                    PAGE: W14   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: CHARLES STEBBINS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

KIDS INVITED TO HELP MUSEUM PICK A MASCOT

It can be "real or imaginary, huge or tiny, furry, slimy or scaly, animal, vegetable, mineral or anything else you chose, said Mary Crockett Hill, museum director.

Children are asked to submit drawings by Nov. 1 with a short explanation of why they think one of their creatures would be a suitable mascot.

Selected drawings will be displayed at the museum during January, Hill said, and a winner will be chosen shortly after that.

The winning entry will become the museum's official mascot and appear on brochures, letterheads and gift-shop items.

Entries are being requested from pupils in all elementary schools throughout the Roanoke Valley and surrounding areas, Hill said. She said she hopes art teachers will take up the mascot search as a class project.

Hill said the idea originated with Mark Miller, a history professor at Roanoke College and one of the museum's directors. She said he had seen mascots at other museums that were selected this way.

The Salem Museum's directors had been looking for a way to get young people involved in its programs, Hill said.

More information on the mascot program can be obtained from Hill at 389-6760.

The museum is on Salem's East Main Street in the southeast corner of Longwood Park.