October & November 2003 issue
Contents:
Letter From Lindy
"Speedy Delivery"
New Faces at the Museum
"Take a Line for a
Walk"
Knowing a Museum for all
Children...
Letter From Lindy
If you are reading this newsletter, in all likelihood you
are a member or supporter of the Omaha Children’s
Mus-eum. The museum relies on the families who make up its
membership base to support the daily life of the museum
in addition to the many special events throughout the year.
This fall, the museum is undertaking a special campaign
to make museum membership a possibility for more families
through our Welcome Fund. The Welcome Fund was established
to make the Omaha Children’s Museum accessible to
everyone in our community and to complement the positive
experiences social service agencies and schools provide.
Since 1995, this fund has provided thousands of admissions
at little or no cost to the visitor through family visits
as well as through relationships with agencies serving children
in need .
As a member of the museum family, please consider showing
your support of the Welcome Fund by making a contribution.
By doing so, you will assist the museum in welcoming more
families as members of this community treasure. A Welcome
Fund contribuion envelope is inserted in this issue of the
newslette for your convenience. Through our combined efforts,
we can make this a museum for all children and enrich the
lives of all families.
If you would like more information regarding the Welcome
Fund, please contact me at lhoyer@ocm.org or 342-6164 ext.
412.
I thank you for your continued support of the Omaha Children’s
Museum.
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"Speedy Delivery"
Mr. McFeely adds Omaha to his route in October
After 35 years of knocking on doors, ringing
doorbells and speedy deliveries, Mister Rogers’ friendly
neighbor is bringing Omaha his best delivery yet–himself!
Mr. McFeely (or David Newell, as he’s known in real
life) joins Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood–A Hands-On
Exhibit for a day in Omaha, proving that even as the exhibit
traverses the country, he still manages to keep up with
his deliveries.
Newell will arrive in Omaha on Saturday, Oct. 11, greeting
visitors and entertaining museum guests with special presentations,
while sharing memories of the legendary show.
Newell was in Europe during the summer of 1967 when he first
got wind of the job opportunity with Fred Rogers. A mutual
friend told him that “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,”
then a regional television program, was expanding to a national
audience. Rogers was searching for an assistant for props
and puppets, and later a deliveryman character.
With a background in children’s theater, the opportunity
was intriguing. Newell soon signed on and the Speedy Delivery
Messenger Service was born!
Haste presented itself in other ways too. The original proposed
name for Newell’s character was Mr. McCurdy—a
choice that was vetoed 20 minutes before the show was to
air. Rogers quickly replaced it with his own middle name,
McFeely. The name stuck.
Though usually in a hurry, Mr. McFeely often took time to
stay and introduce a video from his large collection to
Rogers’ television audience. He would frequently narrate
the videos that demonstrated to children how various things
were made.
“I thought I had a job for one year or at best a couple
of years,” Newell said. “I had no idea.”
One year became five, and five years turned into over three
decades of delivering friendly and educational entertainment
to American homes.
“It became a way of life,” he said. “A
mission that we all were on to create something positive
for families and young children.”
Even away from the role as Rogers’ elderly neighbor
and trusty deliveryman, Newell stayed active behind the
cameras.
During the show’s run he assumed the positions of
properties manager and associate producer. Currently, he
serves as director of public relations for Family Communications,
the producers of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.”
Newell’s background includes an extensive involvement
in theater arts as an actor, technician, stage manager and
administrator. A native of Pittsburgh, he has worked with
several local performance companies in the area. He has
also been involved in theater productions in Los Angeles
and Honolulu.
Newell received his certification in Theater Arts from the
Pittsburgh Playhouse and a B.A. degree in English Literature
from the University of Pittsburgh. He lives in Pittsburgh
with his wife, Nan, and has three children, Carrie, Taylor
and Alexander.
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New Faces
at the Museum
On the second day on the job as director
of com-munity relations at the Omaha Child-ren's Museum
Kate Cavanaugh rode the roller coaster simulator in Theme
Park and quickly determined that she had found her niche
in the working world.
Kate says she has been living a roller coaster type of life,
but she has loved it. The combination of Kate’s experience
with children, she has eight herself, and her work in the
community (where she has been involved with just about every
non-profit organization in Omaha) seemed as if it would
be a match for the position of director of community relations.
In addition to being an active community volunteer for many
years Kate wrote a column which she describes as anecdotal
observations on life for the Omaha World-Herald. She also
has published five books including the “Pete and the
Elves Series,” “Hope For The Best” and
“Mother’s Day.”
St. Charles, Illinois, is Kate’s hometown but she
came to Omaha to attend Creighton University where she received
a B.A in English and met her future husband, John. She calls
Omaha home.
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"Take a Line for
a Walk"
Look up, down and all around. Lines are everywhere.
In art, lines define shapes, communicate mood and emotion,
direct a viewer’s eye and create texture. At the Omaha
Children’s Museum, lines zigzag, wiggle, swirl and
dance in a new traveling exhibit, Take a Line for a Walk.
Take a Line for a Walk and discover how music inspires Lyrical
Lines. Make a line dance with ribbons that Swing, Sway,
Swirl. Connect lines to build Rivers, Roads and Rails.
Rake flowing lines in the sand of a Japanese Rock Garden.
Connect and bend a network of lines to create Constellations.
Weave lines Over and Under to create magnificent patterns
of color and texture. Discover how lines on a face tell
if you’re happy, sad, angry or mad by Making Faces.
Let your fingers do the walking as you Trace a Line.
“Take a Line for a Walk offers children a creative
and exciting springboard into art through manipulation and
play with lines,” Julia Bland, executive director
of the Louisiana Children’s Museum, which created
the exhibit. “In the exhibit, children experience
first-hand the expressive and creative qualities of line
in art. They encounter ways that artists use line in sculpture,
painting and drawing and become aware of lines in the world
around them – in nature, works, buildings, faces and
more.”
Take a Line for a Walk was a designed as a part of the Children’s
Museum Collaborative Inc. (MC2), a museum partnership that
develops and produces quality, creative traveling exhibits.
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Knowing a Museum for all Children...
In order to make the Omaha Children’s
Museum accessible to all members of our community, the museum
established the Welcome Fund in 1995. This program has
covered the cost of admission for many families suffering
economic hardships. With additional support, the Welcome
Fund will also provide memberships to low-and moderate-income
families who might not otherwise be able to participate
in our interactive exhibits, programming and experiences.
An annual fund appeal envelope is included in this newsletter. Please
consider making a gift to the Omaha Children’s Museum
Welcome Fund.
Knowing that we, as individuals, value and support this
special place . . .
Knowing that we, as individuals, can make a difference locally
.
Knowing that we, as individuals, can support those in need
. . .
Knowing that together we can work to welcome all families
to the Omaha Children's Museum.
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