THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Friday, January 13, 1995               TAG: 9501110142
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON    PAGE: 06B  EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY GARY EDWARDS, CORRESPONDENT 
                                             LENGTH: Medium:   63 lines

PLAYGROUND MAP GIVES STUDENTS VIEW OF NATION THE MAP WAS PAINTED ON AN OUTDOOR COURT BY THE TELEPHONE PIONEERS, A GROUP OF RETIREES.

Students at Rosemont Elementary School can visit their grandparents' hometown in Iowa, hop across to California, make a dash for the Texas panhandle and return to Virginia - without ever leaving the school playground. A 20- by 37-foot, five-color map of America painted on an outdoor court allows the students to make the quick trip.

The geographical odyssey was brought to the children by the Telephone Pioneers, a group of retired telephone company workers. It is a national group and the project is nationwide. The Rosemont map was the first one painted in South Hampton Roads, completed in just two days last fall. The Pioneers have plans to paint more United States maps once the weather turns warmer next spring.

Why Rosemont for the pilot project?

``Our granddaughter (Briget Becraft) goes to Rosemont,'' said Luther Becraft, one of eight Pioneers and Pioneer partners - or spouses - who painted the map. His wife, Margaret, helped. ``We want to paint one for Kingston Elementary. That'll probably be next, in the spring.''

Briget, 8, is a third-grader at Rosemont.

Paint is supplied to the Telephone Pioneers by Martin Senour Paint, a national company headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio. The volunteers use brown, yellow, red, blue and green to paint the map; 10 states for each color. The volunteers spread a clear plastic sheet, a pattern of the United States with holes on the borders. State boundaries are marked with white paint and then the states are painted in.

The map will get plenty of use, said Loneta Clement, principal of Rosemont. Fourth-graders are studying United States history and they can obviously benefit from the map. So can others.

``The map won't be restricted to any one class or type of subject,'' said Clement. ``For example, if a class is reading a book set in the U.S., they can also learn the location of the story, see where it is taking place. They can learn visually and spatially as well as intellectually.

``Everybody will use it. Art classes, music, across-the-curriculum.''

The map comes with activities, too. Children toss a bean bag and name the state it lands on, for instance. They can also play geographical hopscotch.

Vince Gillikin is a Telephone Pioneer partner, whose spouse, Estelle, worked for the company. He was one of eight Pioneers and partners to assist in the map painting project. Gillikin was only too glad to be involved.

``I once read that 60 percent of students polled couldn't identify Washington, D.C., on the map,'' he said. ``Any game to aid education sounds like a wonderful idea to me.

``This should be a great teaching aid and it didn't cost a penny to taxpayers.''

Donald McBride, Ray Altizer, Henry and Bootie Roberson and Bill Brightwell composed the remainder of the Telephone Pioneers/ Partners paint crew. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by GARY EDWARDS

Briget Becraft skips through the states on a map that's painted on

an outdoor court at Rosemont Elementary.

by CNB