ROANOKE TIMES  
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Thursday, February 29, 1996            TAG: 9602290010
SECTION: CURRENT                  PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY  
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: MAUREEN HEALY STAFF WRITER
MEMO: ***CORRECTION***
      Published correction ran on March 1, 1996.
         Clarification
         The grand opening for the Blue Door Creative Re-Use Center will be 
      Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The converted double garage - which 
      houses cardboard tubes, wooden blocks, wire and other recycled "junk" 
      that children can use to create art - is located at 2612 Ramble Road, 
      off Industrial Drive near the Companion Animal Clinic.

PRE-SCHOOLERS TURN TRASH INTO TREASURES

At Rainbow Riders Child-Care Center, old film canisters, paper hole punches, spools and lids become round collages.

Dried magic markers dipped in water inspire rich, colorful paintings.

Old transparencies are transformed into dazzling, stained-glass windows.

Sound like a bunch of junk? It is - to the businesses who donated the materials. But to the children at Rainbow Riders, ordinary throw-aways become unique works of art.

They find their canvases and materials in an old garage with a blue door. And starting Saturday, artists, parents, teachers and anyone else interested in the materials will be able to find them in the same place.

Saturday, the Blue Door Creative Re-Use Center opens for business.

The New River Association for Education received a grant to help open the Blue Door center, a converted garage that contains cardboard, Styrofoam pieces, tubes, wooden blocks, plastic and other "trash."

"A lot of the time we use two-dimensional things with kids," said Lynn Hill, administrator at Rainbow Riders. "It's important to give them three-dimensional materials so that we can give them the ability to explore all sides."

The materials from the center will be used in art and other subjects to help teach children of all ages.

"What we'll do is recapture those materials from the businesses and rechannel them into the Blue Door," Hill said.

Schools, scout troops and individuals will be able to join the center for a fee, based on ability to pay and the number of people who would use the materials. "It could be anywhere from $20 a year to $200 a year," Hill said. The higher fee would allow teachers at a school with, say, 500 children, to "shop" in the center for supplies. Hill hopes that booster organizations and local PTAs will consider raising funds to buy the memberships for their schools.

Money from the memberships will be used to pay rent and electricity for the storage space.

Hill got the idea for the re-use center after visiting the Reggio Emilia schools in Italy, which are renowned for their early childhood development programs.

"I wanted to bring some of that back to this community," she said.

Reggio Emilia tries to promote the use of texture in creativity using artistic and aesthetic concepts. The motto is "Nothing without joy."

"Once children have experienced learning in joyful ways, they will exceed our expectations," Hill said. "We make learning fun."

Hill has collaborated with Walter Drew, president of the national organization the Institute for Self-Active Education, to make the Blue Door a reality. Drew has started similar centers in Boston and Florida.

Although the Blue Door has not yet had its grand opening, teachers at Rainbow Riders have been using the materials in their classrooms for several months.

Tammy Sarver, instructor of the 2-year-olds, said she's been using the concept in her classroom for almost a year.

"I see children being really creative with this. The children all do different projects with the same material and that's very sophisticated play for that level," Sarver said.

Creating round collages or things with holes helps the children recognize similar objects in their environment, Sarver said.

Virginia Tech, Tetra, Unimet Inc., Reed Lumber, Kinko's, Mish Mish and other businesses already have donated to the center.

"By diverting resources away from landfills, industry can begin to find community-positive solutions to their own solid waste problems," Hill said. At the same time, they provide educators with "a fascinating array of materials available in abundance." Plus, the donations are tax-deductible.

Larry Bechtel, the recycling coordinator at Virginia Tech, said he is happy to be a part of the project.

"Children are natural artists; they experiment with materials not knowing what they're for and they come up with new uses for them," Bechtel said. "They don't have a sense of the history [of the items] so they don't get stuck with the idea of what they're supposed to be used for."

LENGTH: Medium:   95 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  Alan Kim. Chelsea Myers adds another piece of wire to  
          the pile of components removed from an old transistor radio while  
          Emma Betz (center) and Emily Sarver-Wolf snip out and unscrew more  
          parts. The 5-year-olds from Blacksburg are students at Rainbow  
          Riders Child-Care Center, and are involved in recycling various  
          discarded household items for art projects. color. 2. One idea for  
          recycling is to get more mileage out of used water-soluble markers  
          by dipping them in water and drawing with them. James Wong, 2, of  
          Blacksburg, is all business as he concentrates on his work.