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daVinci Birthday Bash in Corvallis Schools

Corvallis has set aside April 15-17 to celebrate Leonardo daVinci's Birthday. Several area schools had Birthday Celebrations: Mountain View, Jefferson Elementary , Garfield Elementary, Fairplay Elementary, Inavale Elementary, Adams Elementary, Lincoln Elementary. Victoria Fridley arranged for some local Kinetic Sculptures to visit the schools. Melissa Boyd took Fishbert to Garfield School. And on Saturday she took it to Corvallis True Value Hardware. I took Rex to Jefferson, giving the Mayor a ride to the school. And on Saturday Rex was at Grassroots Bookstore, where many passers-by were given rides. Bob Durst and Sherry Clark took Fried Tomato to the Coop on Saturday.

	The kids mob Helen Berg, the Mayor of Corvallis. The Mayor is the woman seated in the red Beetlemania helmet. The woman with the camera is a photographer for the Gazette-Times.
	"May I blow honk the horn?" Honking the horn was very popular with the kids.
	The mayor addresses the flock. Her speech is reproduced below.

• WHEREAS, Leonardo daVinci's genius expressed itself through contributions in the fields of art, science and technology and Corvallis exemplifies a modern Renaissance spirit in those same fields; and,
• WHEREAS, Leonardo daVinci serves as a model of creativity, curiosity and a commitment to lifelong learning; and,
• WHEREAS, daVinci Days is a local festival that celebrates Leonardo's life and furthers our unique community identity while attracting thousands of visitors to Corvallis, thereby diversifying our economic base; and,
• WHEREAS, the daVinci Days festival extends its impact year-round through innovative educational outreach programs such as its partnership with OSU's SEPS program, Kinetic Sculpture curriculum in local scools and the First Annual daVinci Birthday Bash; and
• WHEREAS, daVinci's Birthday Bash will promote local businesses that in turn demonstrate support for the festival by donating a percentage of their sales to the festival.
• NOW, THEREFORE, I, Helen Berg, Mayor of Corvallis, Oregon, do hereby proclaim April 15-17, 1999 to be a Celebration of Leonardo daVinci's Birthday in the City, and call upon all citizens to observe these days with the official celebration programs and activities.

"How many of you want to build a Kinetic Sculpture?" After the Mayor's speech, I also talked with the kids. My talk is shown below.

Introductory questions:

• How many of you have been to daVinci Days and seen the Kinetic Sculpture Races?
• How many of you have been to the mud pit?
• How many have been to daVinci Days but haven't seen the Races?
• How many of you want to build and race a Kinetic Sculpture when you get older?

Last night I thought about what we do with Kinetic Scupltures. And I thought about what you study in school. And I thought about how they are similar.

You are studying arithmetic. We use arithmetic to figure out how much cloth we need to make our costumes. And we use it to figure out how long the metal tubes have to be when we make the vehicle.

You study reading and writing and English. We use our reading and writing skills to set up races in Oregon and Washington and California. I write up a web page with lots of pictures so people can see what we are doing just by pulling it up on their computer.

You study arts and crafts. We decorate our vehicles in pretty much the same way. Right now Rex is not really decorated. But I brought some pictures of when Rex was decorated. I have a poster showing Platypus Rex.. And many of you will remember TimeRex from the last two years.

You sing and learn to play musical. We write a song and perform it at daVinci Days. Sometimes we do dances for the judges.

You do activities like running so you will be in good athletic shape. We ride our Kinetic Sculptures. You have to be in good shape to race one of these.

You study plants and animals. We need to know what animals look like when we decorate our machines to look like them.

You learn to build things. We build things.

So what you are doing here in school. And what you will learn as you get older, will prepare you to build and race and decorate a Kinetic Sculpture. If you want to.

How many of you want to do this when you grow up?

	The Mayor and I got our share of attention. But Rex was really the star of the show.
	"Do you think anybody will notice if we drive this home?"
	"This rig definitely screams!"
	If I'm really nice, maybe mommie will buy me one of these for my birthday.

After most of the kids had gone back to class, the remaining ones were given rides.

	See you in Portland.
	This sign that the kids made was a touching tribute to the Mayor.

Photography by Rick Keller.