Pat Blair has illustrated all
50 Years Of Children's Festival!
Although the the first few years did not have Fred The Litter Critter, dragons played an important role in the early years of Children's Festival. In 1969 the theme was "Medieval Faire" and we know that during medieval times dragons were believed to exhist. My first attempt at dragons was to construct a 7 foot tall, nine foot long dragon of papier maché. And the following year when we made the theme A Reniassance Faire, of course we wanted a dragon. I designed a 9 ft tall, 12 ft long dragon which would be a litter eating dragon to assist us in keeping litter picked up. We wanted dragon to be attractive and friendly to children. I approached Dick Walsh, Administrator of Oregon College Of Art
Which was located in Medford and that time. Mr. Walsh took my design and he and his students at the College of Art constructed the dragon shape with a wood and chicken wire armature and shaped it with papier-mâché. It was fitted, with a mouth that had a spring operated closing. A tongue on and attached to the lower lip/jaw opened when pulled downward. Litter was then dropped down a chute as the mouth closed. The dragon had a speaker system that allowed an operator housed a distance away from the dragon to speak to the child feeding the drag and would thank them for the "yummy food" and ask for more.
The Festival Director at that time was Jeannette Paulson. She and the Storytelling Guild created a dragon naming contest. Children were encourage to submit a name for their Children's Festival Dragon that was mounted on a two wheel boat trailer. The children who won the naming contest were Jim, Bill & Patti Moore, Children of Ann and Tam Moore. "Fred The Litter Critter" was an immediate hit and Britt Gardens was immediately clean and clear of litter as children picked even the smallest bits of litter to feed to Fred!
Once Fred was in place we began using Fred as the mascot and logo and my almost 50 years of Dragons career was launched.
Costuming and/or props have always been an important part of my dragons. Conveying a message as to where the dragon is and what is actually going to happen is a good rule to remember when working with children. They love knowing what is going to occur! I think that is a part of giving children the security they need. My dragon always lets the child know what is going to happen in some form or another whether it is with a balloon, a costume, a hat or some other recognizable thing. Children "get it" when sometimes adults haven't a clue as to why a dragon would be dancing with a balloon in hand or floating away in a hot air balloon! Children accept the dragon's antics as natural and allow these things to happen! A child would say: "Of course a dragon can do anything . . . just like me!"
