The elephant was decorated by the students of Patapsco High School & Center for the Arts, a Baltimore County school, and is sponsored by Crabtree & Co., a graphics and art design firm based in Falls Church, Va. The students decorated the pachyderm with clever illustrations of elephants to represent various chemical elements. While some depictions are chemically accurate--such as nitrogen, which shows a rooted elephant drawing nitrogen from the soil--others are more a play on the names--for example, the masked Lone Ranger atop a rearing white elephant representing "silver."

Approximately 20 of the students and their art and science teachers attended a ceremony on June 3 organized by ACS at its headquarters to honor their work. Farrell Maddox, art department chairman and magnet coordinator, was presented with a Salute to Excellence from ACS by Nancy R. Gray, director of the ACS membership division. Dorothy P. McSweeny, chairman of the D.C. Arts Commission, was also on hand to present Maddox with a letter from D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams. Additionally, Maddox received a signed picture of the mayor posing with several people from the school at the party animal opening from Lucinda Crabtree, president of Crabtree & Co.

The elephants and donkeys will be on display during the next five months, at which time they will be sold at a "raucous caucus" auction. The proceeds will go to the Washington, D.C., Commission on the Arts & Humanities grant programs for the arts and art education. For more details, visit the official party animal website at http://www.partyanimalsdc.org/index.html.

Chemical & Engineering News
Copyright © 2002 American Chemical Society