The remnants of a 35-foot Cat in the Hat snow sculpture may have melted into a heap on the Green, but Dartmouth wants to make sure that Dr. Seuss' 100th birthday celebration continues in a most delightful and splendiferous style.
The College's year-long "Seussentennial," designed to honor beloved alumnus and whimsical children's book author Theodor Seuss Geisel '25, will peak Tuesday, with Seuss-themed events occurring all over campus.
Dartmouth Dining Services will be offering a "Seussified menu," and employees will serve food dressed as various Seuss characters. According to DDS director Tucker Rossiter, offerings will include "WHO hash and eggs," "one fish two fish red fish blue fish," a green-bagel-and-ham breakfast sandwich at Collis Caf and "Roast Beast," to name a few.
"The staff's getting pretty excited about it," said Rossiter.
College President James Wright and others will also read Seuss books to the Dartmouth community at a party in Collis Commonground.
Book Buddies, a Tucker Foundation organization that recruits volunteers to read to underprivileged children, has seized the Seussentennial celebration as an opportunity to embrace Seuss' contributions to children's literature.
"We had a big Doctor Seuss party for all of our volunteers and mentorees and we were able to give out a Doctor Seuss books for every kid that came," said Book Buddies member Danielle Gray '06. A grant from the First Book program made the Seuss gifts possible.
Dartmouth isn't the only institution taking advantage of the Doctor Seuss' 100th birthday. Celebrations across the nation are commemorating the famous Dartmouth alum.
The U.S. Postal Service released a new stamp honoring Geisel last October. The stamp features a bow-tied and bespectacled Dr. Seuss surrounded by the Cat in the Hat and the Grinch, among others.
The Seussentennial Imagination Tour will be playing in more than 40 cities nationwide. The program will "[bring] the Seussentennial to life through free, live performances by actors and costumed characters, readings of Dr. Seuss' books, and interactive Imagination Workshops for kids," according to seussentennial.com.
Other events sponsored by Seuss enterprises include a Read-Across-America featuring Seuss books and celebrity readers in various communities around the country. New Seuss book editions and Seuss products will also be released.
While at Dartmouth, Theodor Geisel '25 wrote for the satire magazine, the Jack-O-Lantern.
He was removed from the editorship of the paper for an unauthorized party but continued to contribute to the magazine using his middle name, Seuss.
Seuss, who died in 1991, won Academy Awards, Emmys, a Peabody Award and a Pulitzer Prize. He wrote more than 40 books that have sold over 500 million copies worldwide.
