Petoskey News-Review from Petoskey, Michigan • 3

NVfaiaivkVVvVvVi News-Review "jri econd Front Friday, May 27, 1383 Page 3 Wendy Midener Froud Puppet Maker Preserve Opening Delayed WEST TRAVERSE TWP. The proposed opening this weekend of Thome Swift Nature Preserve has been postponed, according to Lou Borie, executive director of Little Traverse Conservancy (LTC). The area's newest nature preserve, including a small public beach on Lake Michigan, was expected to open Memorial Day weekend. But adverse spring weather has held up the finishing touches at the site. A tentative opening date is set for Saturday, June 18.

Thome Swift is owned by LTC and managed by the township under a five-year lease agreement. THE PRESERVE is made up of 30 acres on Lower Shore Drive, about three miles northwest of Harbor Springs, off M-119. It was first proposed in 1981 when Elizabeth Kennedy offered to donate 30 acres along the lake to the conservancy, provided the land was leased to the township. Borie said work is still needed on landscaping and some of the nature trails. He said there are plans for a dedication ceremony two weeks before the public opening.

Bii iiri.il itr innJ' HI Petoskey Kiwanis Club. Also on hand was Lola Reusch, whose letter to the editor prompted the flag purchase. (NEWS photo by Kendall P. Stanley) NEW FLAGS for downtown Petoskey were presented to City Manager Steven Hoffner, second from right, by Shirley Hill, far left, of the Petoskey Chamber of Commerce Retail Board, and Bob Esford, right, president of the By AUDREY COLLINS Wendy Midener Froud, daughter of artists Walter and Peggy Midener of East Jordan and wife of Brian Froud, authorartist of the Gnome books, has chosen a life in the arts for herself. She worked for Jim Hensen ofMuppet fame, building the puppets used in the film, "The Dark Crystal.

"She also helped create Yoda, the wizened, gentle Jedi leader who is featured in two of the Star Wars films, including "Return of the Jedi, "released this week. New Flags to Fly in Petoskey By KENDALL P. STANLEY A letter to the editor of the News-Review after the Fourth of July last year has resulted in new American flags for downtown Petoskey. Mrs. Reusch complained about the lack of flags in the city on the Fourth, noting she and her husband Fred always on the holidays when they operated Mitchell Street.

She had counted only city on the Fourth, and said she was will be displayed for the first time on Day, according to City Manager Steven The Petoskey Kiwanis Club and the the Petoskey Area Chamber of Commerce recently pur chased 25 flags for display from Petoskey Street to Division Street, after a letter was published last year from Lola Reusch. Parents off Disturbed If Johnny's a Brat, Don't Lose Together members working to develop special education programs, activity groups, clinical services, day treatment centers, vocational training, residential care, and respite care for children whose parents need to be away during an evening or for a weekend and cannot find qualified child care during their absense. Training workshops are planned, to equip parents with the special skills needed to work with their special children. )Vi, Heart A Char-Em area chapter of MAEDC is being organized by the 10 parents who attended Thursday's meeting. The next session, open to parents, professionals, students, and other interested persons, will be held at Char-Em at 7 p.m.

Thursday, June 16. Organizers are attempting to provide child care at Char-Em during the session, but interested parents are asked to call Pat Taylor at 547-9947 in advance to confirm whether the service will be available. What is an emotionally disturbed child? Did you play with puppets when yon were growing up? Yes, I did. My mother read to me a lot when I was little, and she read a lot of Greek mythology and fairy stories, and of course, some of the characters in there were kinds you can't find in stores so I had to make them. I've always made dolls, since I was about five.

How did you get into working with the Muppets? I'd been making dolls in Detroit and selling them through the craft gallery there, and partly that gave me enough money to move to New York with some friends. I had a small show in a loft when I got to New York, and the art director for the Muppets saw some of my dolls and puppets and bought one for Jim Hensen for a Christmas present. And then I just got a call and they asked me to come and work on The Dark Crystal. I was going to be a waitress. It was great I think probably you're more well known locally for having worked on Yoda for The Empire Strikes Back.

That's funny. I started on The Dark Crystal. My husband, Brian Froud, designed the sets, characters and costumes, and we met on that film. I was lent to the Star Wars team to help out on Yoda. That was done by a group of people, but I did the prototype.

It was done in the middle of The Dark Crystal. You had a busy year, then. It was a busy five years. Which of the characters did you build for The Dark Crystal?" The Gelflings, the little boy and girl, and some of the pod people, peasants, and a lot of the forest creatures. How does the animation work? They're puppets, really, sophisticated puppets.

They all have people inside of them, or just hands inside of them. The facial expressions are done either by cable control or radio control. That's got to be awfully tricky. It is. Usually for a major character, it took at least five people to make that character work, so it was really crowded underneath the sets.

I do some of the cable control and radio control for things like the eye blinks and ear moves. It was hard, really hard to coordinate that and make it believable. When I saw The Empire Strikes Back, I could pick out the points when I was crying under the set because it was so hard, and we were having such a hard time doing it. Was this a departure from anything you had done before? Well, no one had ever done anything like it before. We were an experimental team putting it together, and that's why Yoda came in as such a useful experience because it taught us what we needed to learn to make The Dark Crystal which is more sophisticated.

Did your creations become your friends? While you're working on them they really are just bits of things you're putting together. Once they're put together and once the puppeteer puts his hand inside and brings life to them, then they become creatures, they really do have a life. It's amazing. No matter how many times I see any of the films that have those in it, I'm amazed. I believe them.

I really do, and I know exactly what's being done. What are the puppets made of? It's an involved process. First of all Brian would do a sketch or painting and give it to one of the sculptors in our group, and we would do a clay head of the size it was going to be. The mold was made of that, then we pour foam latex in and cure it, and it becomes rubber, like skin. And then the mechanics are put in, it's painted, and hair is put on, and teeth made.

It's got to take a while to complete one. Oh, it does. I think from beginning to end, if you have everything worked out in advance, it would be about a month maybe, maybe less depending on how complicated it is. We were working for four years solid on those same kinds of creatures. And also, you have to make duplicates of everything.

There isn't just one, because they don't all do the same thing. Some have different kinds of movements for different shots. Of course, since they're puppets, you have to hide so much. They don't work as people do, obviously. We had spare arms and hands that would do different kinds of things, and full bodies with legs, and half bodies, depending on the situation the character was in.

Did your parents influence your career? Oh, I think they were a major influence. I just grew up with paintings and sculpture all over the house. I assumed for a long time that everybody lived like that, and of course they don't. You've chosen a different kind of art than either of them. That was intentional in the beginning, because they were both at the school I went to (The Center for Creative Studies in Detroit).

I didn't feel as though I could take sculpture or painting because they were teaching them. So I went into a craft area instead. None of us, in art school, ever thought we'd be successful. I just feel I was so lucky to find a career that involves exactly what I like tod- Where are you living now? I spent every summer in East Jordan until I was 18. In England, we live in the country, down in Devon on the edge of Dartmoor in a very, very old house.

It's been raining there for 45 days 1 the purchase of Retail Board of Children Banding Programs (HIP), special classrooms designed for those needs. MAEDC defines an emotionally disturbed child as one whose difficulties interfere significantly with the child's personality development, his view himself, his adjustment at home or in school or with his relationships with others. Depression and unhappiness are two symptoms, along with behavior problems, fear and anxiety, and the inability to maintain relationships with peers, teachers, parents. "IT'S REALLY A grey area when these things go from a normal developmental problem to a serious emotional disturbance," Ms. Brink said.

"When the problems become chronic and interfere with the child's relationships, it's serious." She outlined some suspected causes of emotional impairment, ranging from tension, child care practices that suffer from lack of structure or inconsistency, economic and social deprivation, psychoneurosis, brain injury, language or reading disability, to psychosis or schizophrenia. Many children have learning disabilities combined with emotional impairment, she noted. "Those children need support and alternative education techniques," she said. "They really suffer from low self-esteem." The Northern Michigan Chapter of MAEDC, organized in Traverse City in October, now has 80 NORTHERN LOWER MICHIGAN: Fair and not as cold tonight with scattered frost. Low in the mid to upper 30s.

Partly cloudy Saturday. High in the low to mid 60s. The Michigan extended weather forecast for Sunday through Tuesday: LOWER MICHIGAN: Very cool through mid week. Chance of rain showers in the north on NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE FORECAST to MNPXJ8' UPI WEATHER FOTOCAST 77 i 7 i I MWNEAPC los lOWBST 'r DALLAS TEUKRATUMt 4 put out flags their business on five flags in the "heartbroken." The new flags Monday, Memorial Hoffner. Sunday Highs mid the Monday Lows mid Monday Tuesday.

Very week. showers in the lows COOL CHARLEVOIX: MAEDC representative Gail Brink heard area parents of emotionally disturbed children admit how painful it is to "rattle all the cages and ring all the phones, and all you get is busy signals." Ms. Brink is helping parents organize a chapter of Michigan Association for Emotionally Disturbed Children in the Char-Em area. (NEWS photo by Audrey Collins) By AUDREY COLLINS CHARLEVOIX Finding help for emotionally disturbed children isn't easy, Gail Brink, chapter development specialist for Michigan Association for Emotionally Disturbed Children (MAE DC) told a small group of parents at the Char-. Em Intermediate School District Service Center Thursday night.

What is an emotionally disturbed child? According to one parent attending, it's the child labeled a "brat" or a "bad kid," the child who gets kicked out of class and suspended from school, the child who is shunned by neighbors, the child of whom it is said, "if that were my kid, I'd straighten him out." "Someone told me once, 'I don't see what the problem is. They go to Child Guidance and if that doesn't work, you put them in the hospital. It's so Ms. Brink related, countering with, "But it's not simple. It's un-simple, and kids fall into the cracks." Ms.

Brink formerly taught emotionally impaired children in Shiawassee County, where, even as a professional, she was stymied in finding appropriate support and treatment programs for her students. "If I couldn't find help for these kids, what must their parents feel like?" she said. PINK-SLIPPED in a district budget cut, Ms. Brink found work with MAEDC, a 26-year-old organization begun as a support group for parents. The organization, supported by United Way and private donations, has now grown into a group that builds programs and organizes activities for children, plans educational meetings for parents, provides direct assistance to needy amilies, works in cooperation with existing agencies, and responds to political issues that impact on emotionally disturbed children one current issue discussed was the proposed cutback of beds at Amell Engstrom Children's Center at Traverse City.

According to Char-Em special education professionals, 100 children in the intermediate district have been identified as emotionally impaired. Depending on the severity of the problem, the students receive counseling in the school or support from the learning center. Many also require therapy from outside agencies. Some 30 of these students are in Highly Individualized Carp Tested LANSING (UPI) Carp samples from six Michigan rivers and the Saginaw Bay are being tested by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to assess the extent of dioxin contamination in the state, the Department of Natural Resources said Thursday.

WEATHER 30s. and Monday. in the mid 50s to 60s Sunday and in mid to upper 50s and Tuesday. in the mid 30s to 40s Sunday and and in the 30s UPPER MICHIGAN: cool through mid Chance of rain in the east Sunday and Monday. Highs low to mid 50s and in the low to mid Kansas City 73 61 Las Vegas 102 69 Los Angeles 82 68 Memphis 82 55 Miami Beach 86 73 Milwaukee 56 40 Mpls-St.

Paul 70 57 New Orleans 86 64 New York 60 53 Oklahoma City 83 62 Omaha 74 61 Philadelphia 71 55 Phoenix 109 81 Pittsburgh 59 36 St. Louis 72 57 St. Prbg-Tampa 86 67 San Diego 70 65 San Francisco 63 52 Seattle 67 53 Washington 74 50 The sun sets tonight at 8:59 p.m. and rises Saturday at 6 :02 a.m. City Hi Lo Alpena 48 28 Detroit 55 36 Escanaba 53 40 Flint 55 36 Grand Rapids 57 34 Houghton 53 37 Houghton Lake 52 30 Jackson 56 32 Lansing 57 36 Marquette 49 27 Muskegon 53 33 Pellston 53 28 Saginaw 54 36 Sault Ste.

Marie 49 27 Traverse City 52 29 Atlanta 81 51 Baltimore 76 50 Boston 71 47 Buffalo 53 40 Chicago 60 41 Cincinnati 63 37 Cleveland 56 37 Dal-Ft. Worth 89 65 Denver 83 54 Des Moines 71 56 Duluth 58 42 Honolulu 84 67 Houston 85 68 Indianapolis 63 41 7 AM EST BOSTON NtW YORK UxT'-rjAW lsX TODAY'S WEATHER Fair Tonight, Not as Cold Yesterday's High, 47 Overnight Low, 32 Noon Today, 48 now. In a setting like that I can imagine it would be very easy to see elves, fairies and gnomes. Well we haven't seen any yet, but we keep a lookout. i-i -t i 0 iiniiiiiorninr-.