UCA alumni group’s book to add to scholarship fund – The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
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Starting college preparations early and funding scholarships at the same time are the goal of the University of Central Arkansas Alumni Association with its new children’s book, “B Is for Bears: The UCA Alphabet.”
“Come along and join mascots Bruce and Sugar as they guide future Bears through the A to Z of UCA’s campus!” beckons the book’s online description.
Alison Taylor, one of the book’s authors as well as executive director of alumni relations at UCA, says inspiration for the book came from Mary Lackey, the university’s vice president for advancement.
“Whenever she brought the idea to me, I was like, this is amazing,” Taylor says.
Taylor is mom to 6- and 7-year-old boys.
“I love reading and I read to them all the time and I was like, ‘This is the perfect way to introduce campus to students and to younger kids, to get them excited about all of the different things that are available to them on campus. We kind of just dove in.”
The book will be available for $19.95, after its official release on Aug. 5. Preorders are available through the publisher, Mascot Books, Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Book sales will help raise funds for the Kathy Carroll General Alumni Scholarship fund at UCA.
Riley Hancock Matheny, director of branding and creative services, helped write the book and also did the illustrations.
“I am not a digital illustrator, so it was a lot of learning as I went,” says Matheny, who managed to find time among her full-time, day-to-day graphic design responsibilities, which include making posters and brochures and other projects, to work on the book project.
“After we got our storyboard put together I had talked with my kids, who are 4 and 6, about getting their reactions to different ways of saying things,” she says. “We had picked some terms across campus and were trying to narrow it down to what would be interesting and relevant to that age of children. Since they’re kids and they have no filters, they were very honest.”
Matheny started with photos of UCA’s mascots, Bruce and Sugar Bear, and rounded out their features to make them more cartoonish and “kid-friendly.”
Matheny had met a children’s book illustrator at a design conference a year before starting this project, and he gave her some suggestions for a personal project she was mulling over.
“One of the aspects he had talked about was creating your own art brushes in (Adobe) Illustrator, just to add depth and to add texture, an extra-something, instead of just having flat illustrations.”
She created art brushes, used in “B Is for Bears,” using relief prints and stamps of texture samples she gathered around campus.
“There is the texture of a brick from Old Main, the bark from the trees around the fountain, the petals of the pansies that are grown in all of our containers around campus,” says Matheny, who also covered a football in marker to make a stamp. “I downloaded all that artwork and created custom illustrator brushes. I thought that was fun, to give a little extra history, a little extra just to anchor it into UCA.”
Matheny says one page of the book, “J Is for Journalism,” is a tribute to Madison Ogle, a recent UCA graduate, who helped with the project.
“We’ve got great stories to tell! Here we can learn how to share our stories and take pictures of our Bears doing great things,” is printed above a bear wearing a press pass and holding a camera.
Ogle is a photographer for West Chester University in West Chester, Pa.
“We all grew really close with her while she was here,” Matheny says.
Among other campus highlights included in the book are the marching band, Estes Stadium, the fountain in Harding Centennial Plaza, Mudstock — a day of volleyball games played in a messy mud pit, hosted by the Association of Future Alumni — the nature reserve and the UCA Observatory.
“Q” and “X” were the most challenging letters in the book, says Jennifer McCune, adjunct writing professor, who served as the book’s editor.
Q is for questions.
“I try to get my students to question everything,” she says.
“X” is for X-ray, which several UCA students learn to use in careers as nurses, physical therapists and athletic trainers, according to the book.
The letter “L” was less of a challenge, McCune says.
“L is for the Legacy Walk, a path made of special bricks with the names of our graduates and friends. You may find the name of your friends and family here.”
A brick with McCune’s name on the Legacy Walk is right next to one engraved with her mother’s name. They attended college together, both as non-traditional students, and graduated together on the same day in 2002.
McCune met her husband on campus, and in 2019 started her second master’s program at the same time her son began work toward a master’s degree in computer science.
“This place has afforded me so many opportunities, and I’ve gotten to watch three generations of us coming here. … The book holds a pretty sentimental place for me.”
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Kimberly Dishongh writes the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s weekly “Right Time Right Place” how-we-met stories about how Arkansas couples; bi-weekly “It Takes a Lifetime” profiles of interesting Arkansans over 70; High Profile section cover stories; stories about philanthropic groups; and various other issues. She has worked for the paper since 1996.
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