he Lyon Family is sponsoring Sebastian and, in doing so, they have decided to place a few items inside the animal that he will carry on his journey to Eldridge Park when he takes his place among the rest of the herd on the carousel turntable in Elmira, NY. Sebastian will have a heart and a lot of other interesting items inside. Here's how Mary Lyon tells it:

Bob, the kids and I are sponsoring the lion. He was Bob’s favorite animal on the carousel.

ACTUALLY, the idea of putting something inside came from Larry and Jerry Pefferly and the idea of the heart, from John Kolonach. The Pefferly’s related a story to us that they heard about old carousel horses that were being bisected for a decoration project (to utilize both sides of the animal…thereby needing fewer animals). The people doing the work found some interesting, personal items in the “coffin” when the animals were opened. The idea of personalizing the contents was one that we liked…so we used it.

1. Brass Ring information on EPCPS stationary
2. Prototype ring information on EPCPS stationary (Old Glory’s profile in the background)
3. An article that I wrote concerning carousels
4. EPCPS envelope (unsealed) with an aluminum logo tag and a 2003 penny
5. Prototype brass engraved ring 1/20 Enjoy the ride The Lyon Family 2003 RL
   (We used 2003 on the items as that is the year the project began.)

I thought it would be appropriate to ”preserve” the two types of stationary (one with a logo and one with a logo and the horse as the background) along with the Society’s envelope. Frank Messina designed the logo and is a valued Board member and friend. He and I designed the stationary artwork together and George Howell’s crew used the artwork to print the beautiful stationary. The horse outline on the logo is from “Old Glory”. (This is the same horse that is pictured on the background of the stationary). The information on the stationary details the significance of the brass ring fund raiser and outlines the prototype information.

I chose to put the brass ring inside for many reasons…again to tie in the logo theme, but also to symbolize a “free ride” from the efforts of our family, friends, the Society and the whole community. The brass ring sale was Bob's and my idea and one of the first formal fundraisers for the project. The money generated from the sale of the rings, along with the generous donation of lithographs from Frank, gave the Society a head start financially. We chose a prototype tag (which is numbered as 1/20), to be ‘entombed” in “Sebastian” as there are only 440 of the “real” brass ring tags. There were 20 proto type (mistake) tags…some are misprints, others have a change in the horse’s front leg. To me, this symbolizes diversity, the need for coordinated efforts and good communication along with supporting the old saying “practice makes perfect”. I can’t tell you the number of times either Frank or I went to various places to check on the artwork…how many times we tried to reformat the artwork so the people at WrightCut EDM, Max Pack and others could decipher the image that needed to be worked on. Some of the other prototype tags may be auctioned off in the future.

The 2003 penny was put in to symbolize the year the project began, for luck and “for your thoughts”. The aluminum logo tag was put in to memorialize another group effort. Frank Messina came up with the idea of selling stuffed animals with the EPCPS logo on their tee shirts…Bob suggested a limited, numbered edition which meant…choosing and designing a variant of the original logo (thank you Frank) and choosing a different metal tag so as not to confuse the brass ring tags with the animal tags. The animal tags are polished aluminum and are signed/numbered as well. We then had to decide how to affix the tag to the animal…hence; each animal is individually dressed and fitted with a hand-numbered logo chain fastened around its neck. The aluminum tags may also be used in the future to “label” other items sold or auctioned by the Society."

Sebastian will also carry a story by Mary Lyon that she calls "her carousel story." Some time ago, David Kubissa from the Star-Gazette asked Bob Lyon for a story about the carousel. So Bob came to Frank and Mary with the request. Many of us are familiar with Frank's published works and that he is an accomplished writer. But you may not know that Mary is also very good behind the pen. She is the recipient of the Proclaim and Gabriel Awards for children's pieces that she has written and have been formatted for TV. She has also been recognized in print and on CD format for poetry that she has authored.

Mary says that "there will never be a time when I am not embarrassed when Bob talks of this or tells everyone that I received a kiss from Nick Clooney at the Gabriel Award ceremony." She says that she has always loved writing, but she doesn't think that her writing style fits the newspaper format. And so she wrote the article, but kept it, never giving it to the paper or letting anyone read it for a long time. Along with the other items, that article is inside Sebastian for posterity.

As Mary puts it, "Safe… private… and with emotion that can only be shared with friends."