Landmark
1. An event, discovery, or change marking an important stage or turning point in something, for example the Frog Baby Fountain at Ball State University.
After three summers coming to the MFA Summer Symposium at Ball State University, you’d think I would have noticed most of the major landmarks on campus. Apparently I am not very observant, or maybe I just never happened to walk by the north side of the Bracken Library. Happily, today I finally noticed the Frog Baby.
The Frog Baby Fountain is one of the finest examples of a “landmark” I have ever seen on a college campus. According to the BSU website, “the chubby-cheeked little girl dangling two frogs by their feet and smiling up at the sky has become legendary at Ball State over the years as a good luck charm and a popular meeting place. In the past, campus legend had it that if you rub her nose, you would have good luck on your next exam. However, with so many students caressing her nose, she became damaged and was packed away. In 1993, Frog Baby was restored and placed in the middle of a fountain built on the north side of Bracken Library.”
I’m glad the Frog Baby is back on campus. If you have a chance, stop by and visit her, and maybe make a wish. Have a great week at Summer Symposium. Frog Baby is with us, sending her good luck charms out to all.
-Nancy
Nancy Carlson is the Executive Vice President and CFO at Music for All. Nancy spent many years as a parent volunteer with the Carmel High School Performing Arts Department in various capacities, from sewing choir costumes to serving as Treasurer of the Band Boosters organization. Carlson enjoyed her volunteer work so much that she decided it was time to marry her vocation and her avocation, so she joined Music for All after spending most of her career in Corporate Finance, most recently for Wellpoint, Inc. Nancy has been known to say “I’m just a band mom who spends some of her time doing accounting.”
