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SOS! News

National staff targets trade associations for press

As SOS! spreads rapidly across the country, national public awareness efforts are also reaching people beyond the immediate art, preservation and history communities. To achieve this goal, the national staff is pitching SOS! as a story idea to publications of trade and special-interest groups.

Articles about SOS! can be written so they highlight points of particular interest to an organization. For example, trade unions of letter carriers, steel workers and circus performers have sculptures around the country dedicated to their members. Publications directed to individuals who might have responsibility for caring for outdoor sculpture can be educational by providing resource information pertaining to materials or professional conservators who specialize in specific types of treatment.

Covering SOS! is also appropriate in publications directed to people who can make use of public sculpture in their work or community activities. Teachers can use SOS! as an educational tool. Members of Kiwanis, the Jaycees, Boy/Girl Scouts, and Women's Clubs can become involved in SOS! to preserve their city's unique public art. Hikers and bicyclists can incorporate sculpture along trails into tours and can assist in the national search for outdoor sculpture in rural places.

In the December 1993 issue of The Postal Record, the 310,000-circulation magazine for the National Association of Letter Carriers, SOS! was featured with a photograph and short article, noting, "Since letter carriers tread virtually every street in America, they see the obscure and forgotten monuments that might be overlooked in this campaign to preserve American history and our cultural heritage." The blurb has already generated inquiries and a future issue of the publication will highlight letter carriers who volunteer.

An announcement about SOS! in The ClubWoman, the magazine of the General Federation of Women's Clubs, resulted in many individual calls and an invitation to SOS! Program Director Susan Nichols to speak at the club's annual meeting. Members are now being encouraged to become SOS! surveyors, researchers, photographers and in-office volunteers, or organize adopt-a-sculpture projects, outdoor sculpture tours and other educational programs.

The national office will continue to contact association magazines with examples of relevant sculpture and names of members who are SOS! volunteers. Please contact Lynn Clark with ideas. [[image]]

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Photo by Sam Dadian

The Letter Carriers' Monument, in Milwaukee, provided the impetus for an article about SOS! in the magazine of the National Association of Letter Carriers.

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