The Atlantic Audubon Society (South Jersey, near the Forsythe NWR; Absecon, NJ) hit upon a solution that the public has loudly applauded for five years in a row. The chapter took two large, rectangular sheets of foam core and hinged them together with duct tape. Then one of their artistically talented members painted life-sized outlines of the outspread wings of a Bald Eagle, an Osprey, a Common Egret, and a Laughing Gull (all visitors to South Jersey) across the hinged foam core. When the children -- and adults! -- came to the chapter's booth on Fair day, two chapter volunteers held up the "wings," and had each visitor back up, with arms outspread, to "measure up" to a bird. They even had kids who had "measured up" at the fair last year come back this year to find out whether they had grown enough to fit the next largest bird! A third chapter volunteer gave each child a wearable, adhesive label announcing to the world his/her "bird size": chapter folks designed and printed these labels themselves. They scanned an accurate drawing of each bird into a computer, added the words for each bird (example: "I'm Osprey-sized") with the chapter name, and printed them onto label sheets with an inkjet printer. With the label, the children received a simple fact sheet for "their" species, with a large drawing of the bird, small comparative drawings of the four birds in flight, and information such as the bird's size, what it eats, and where it lives. The chapter also ran an automatic, continuous slide show of local birds with species subtitles, for folks to take in while waiting their turn. Slick, quick, educational, inexpensive -- and a crowd-pleaser!

FOR MORE INFO., CONTACT:

Kathy and John Peterson
331 6th Avenue
Egg Harbor City, NJ 08215
phone: 609/965-5748
email: peterson@dandy.net