The silly season of Staff Appreciation Week is still in full swing at UCSB, and Mo Lovegreen, Executive Officer for the Department of Geography, and Kathy Scheidemen, MSO for the Earth Research Institute, are determined to make this year’s celebrations “memorable,” whether their staff like it or not. Monday’s highlight was a paper airplane contest, and Tuesday was devoted to cake and ice cream. But the Burke sisters (yep, that’s their maiden name; you might say it’s appropriate, if you know British slang!), raised the ante on Wednesday by declaring a staff costume contest.
The rules were that costumes could be made from anything found inside Ellison Hall, that contestants could act individually or as groups, and that Geography and ERI wouldn’t compete directly with each other but would each give out their own awards. Awards would be given for costumes that best embodied the themes of teamwork, creativity, recycled content, and the avant-garde—and contestants were given an hour and a half to come with something “appropriate.”
Picture this: A hunched over chain of Geog staff adorned in black garbage bags decorated with decals and paper streamers, representing a caterpillar. A 6 foot 3 inch “butterfly” (Karl Antonsson) emerging from a “cocoon.” An emcee, his face smeared with dirt (Bill Norrington, aka “Father Earth,” “dirty old man,” or, as Patricia Halloran suggested, the rear end of the caterpillar), intoning Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky.” Silly? You bet! But Geography staff’s enactment of Connie Padilla’s idea of acting out the metamorphosis of a butterfly got a standing ovation!
Not to be outdone, ERI staff also pooled their resources and came up with a Lady Gaga version of a cross between Gaia, a recycling bin, and the lost and found (modeled by Jeri O’Mahoney). The team of Mieke DeMeo, Kris Duckett, Heather Liu, Bonnie Roper, and Cecilia Sousa accepted the challenge of utilizing recycled material by raiding the recycle bins (regular and techno-trash) on the floor to create a unique outfit featuring everything from a Gaga-inspired hat, a candy bar finger ring, and a filled “backpack” to avant-garde jewelry (rings and necklaces), glasses, a purse, and even a world globe!
A good time was had by all, and all the staff concerned applaud Kathy and Mo’s efforts to boost morale, increase interaction, and share a sense of humor among their ranks. As they say, “a family that plays together, stays together.” Of course, they also say that “families are like fudge – mostly sweet, with a few nuts mixed in.”
Editor’s note: Many thanks to Geography graduate student Kitty Currier for taking pictures of the Geography staff participants; ERI photos courtesy of Kathy Scheidemen. Thanks also to Katie Maynard for providing garbage bags for the Geography junkies.
Article by Bill Norrington; for more photos, click here.
