You may be familiar with the cows in Chicago, the big apples in New York City, or the Peanuts characters in St. Paul, MN. Fort Wayne is about to join the list with "Mastodons on Parade," a community art project similar to what many other cities have done but showcasing a unique mascot — the mastodon — as their icon.

When the first mastodons take to the campus of IPFW as part of the celebration of its fortieth anniversary, one of them will be courtesy of the 4D Foundation’s MASTerCamp.

Local area businesses and organizations will collaborate with local artists to create these unique works of art. First-round submissions were due first of August and the MASTerCamp Mastodon was one of the first officially approved.

MASTerCamp, a unique summer enrichment program sponsored by FourD Education Foundation, offers week-long camps and advanced courses of exploration in Music, Arts, Science and Technology. As part of one of the classroom exercises, this year’s MASTerCampers were asked to design a Mastodon, and their results will be displayed at the opening event at IPFW.

EDG developed the final design for submission, proposing to create a photographic and illustrative collage of images of the students and their work in the MASTerCamp environment. Audio and video is still being explored to make the mastodon interactive for students and parents alike.

For more information on Mastodons on Parade, visit their web site at www.mastodons.org. For more information on MASTerCamp, visit their web site.