By Jennifer Colbourne (Staff Writer) – Email
Last week on March 2nd, UFV celebrated the birthday of Dr. Seuss. While it might seem strange for a university to celebrate the birthday of a children’s book author, anyone who is familiar with Student Life’s Programmer Martin Kelly should not be surprised. Martin Kelly is the very spirit of wackiness and fun at UFV, and always a hit with the students. Celebrations of Dr. Seuss’ birthday have been an annual event at UFV for many years, the result of Martin Kelly’s “personal passion” for Dr. Seuss.
“There are very few revolutions in children’s literature,” explains Martin Kelly of his passion, “of which Dr. Seuss is probably the biggest… [until Seuss’ time] children’s literature was anything but fun, it was largely about passing on moral parables… [Seuss is a] cultural icon. There’s not anybody you can find out there that doesn’t know something about Dr Seuss… everybody knows Green Eggs and Ham… he’s a touchstone for fifty years worth of people.” Kelly couldn’t help but add that the day also “gives [him] a chance to dress up in weird outfits.”
This year celebrations were held at the Chilliwack campus because, according to Kelly, the campus is home to the Early Childhood Education and Teachers Education programs – groups one would suppose would share an interest in one of children literature’s greatest authors. However, ECE students were nowhere to be found; on the other hand, even though the TEP students were off on practicum, they decided to celebrate Seuss’ birthday with the young students at their respective schools.
UFV students were shown a Seuss film and given cake, which Kelly and some students had decorated the day before; there were 7-8 cakes each representing different Dr. Seuss books, including a 1 Fish 2 Fish cake, a Green Eggs and Ham cake, and a Cat in the Hat cake. In order to have a piece of cake, however, students were required to answer a Dr. Seuss trivia question or “stump the cat” – in other words, ask Martin Kelly a question he couldn’t answer. Asked if he had been stumped, said Kelly “no way, no way, not even close!” A couple of children were also in attendance, and Kelly made animal balloons. Overall, Chilliwack students had a good time.
“Why do we do events like this?” asked Kelly. “We have to start building rituals and icons and things that make people go. ‘What’s going on for Dr Seuss’ birthday this year, I wonder?’ … There’s not that many things around here that pass for events that people do look forward to, that they pass on from student generation to student generation.” And of course, as Martin Kelly so exuberantly exclaimed: “Dr Seuss, he’s the man! He is the man!”
