Students wonder who made off with college’s larger-than-life size namesake
BURLINGTON, Vt. -- The new Samuel de Champlain statue, installed on the Champlain College campus courtyard last summer during Vermont’s 400th anniversary celebration of the French explorer’s arrival in the area, has gone missing.
Students and faculty heading for their coffee at the IDX Student Life Center first noticed the empty black engraved granite column around 6:30 a.m. this morning and called Champlain College
security.
“It took a truck with a crane and winch and several men to install it last summer, so we’re a little perplexed on how it was taken overnight,” according to the head of Champlain’s security crew. “I think the thing weighs at least a ton,” he added.
Campus security is reviewing the “Campus Cams” including video from the one located in the President's Freeman Hall office overlooking the statue for possible leads. It is expected that some of college’s ITS digital forensics students will be called in to help enhance the images.
The larger-than-life statue depicting Champlain as a virile, barefooted, young, shirtless man crouching and looking through a spyglass toward the new Roger H. Perry Hall and Student Welcome Center slated to open in August, was cast in bronze by noted Vermont sculptor Jim Sardonis, perhaps best known locally for his sculpture of two whales tails on a hill off I-89 in South Burlington.
On Thursday morning, many students at the small, yet highly-respected private residential college nestled in the historic hill section of the Queen City, were standing around the empty black granite column speculating about “SammyD’s” whereabouts before heading to class.
“I can’t believe he is gone,” said Awanda Wheriwent, a sophomore in marketing at Champlain. “The courtyard just seems so empty and many students reach up and tickle Sammy’s foot for good luck before a test. It’s always helped me, even with writing papers or blogging for my high-level, cutting edge social media Marketing classes, so I don’t know what we are going do if it isn’t returned – like, finals start in three weeks!”
The Samuel de Champlain statue, normally kneeling, would be 7-foot, six inches tall if standing, which would have easily qualified it to participate in College's recent student-run Slam for Sudan slam dunk basketball competition which raised nearly $2,000 to aid the Global Reach Partnership program for local refugees from Sudan.
Burlington detectives have issued an all-points bulletin and a Bronze alert for the statue. 'Have-You-Seen"posters for local telephone poles were being designed by the College's Marketing Department and expected to be ready by mid-day, if not sooner.
U.S. and Canadian Border Patrols have also been beefed up citing fears the 1609 French explorer could be trying to return to Quebec. Others speculate the statue might headed to the New York side of Lake Champlain via ferry, as part of an April’s Fool Day prank by students from Plattsburgh State University.
It was still unclear early this morning whether reports of continued North Country resentment over Vermont having thrown a better Quadricentennial celebration last year played a part in the abduction. There is also speculation that the fact that Vt. Gov. Jim Douglas pushed the button to blow up the rusting Champlain Bridge to New York earlier this year might have fueled the action. “People living in the Empire State have a lot of unresolved issues, especially related to things related to Champlain,” one long-time political observer noted.
This is not the first Burlington area statue that has been reported missing in recent weeks – the scuba-diving mannequin at the corner of Maple and Battery Streets was stolen only to return a few days later, just in time for the Magic Hat Mardi Gras Parade. Over the years, a Ronald McDonald statue from the Essex Junction McDonald’s restaurant, a Gumby statue in a Williston front yard and a Big Boy statue on Shelburne Road, were taken by pranksters and later returned unharmed.
There is already a public call for additional statue patrols to protect the UVM Catamount, the Saint Michael’s College Archangel, Middlebury College's Frisbee Catching Dog, the Church Street Marketplace Leap-Frog Children and the Flying Monkeys atop Union Station and Main Street Landing.
"We're praying for the safe return of Sammy," a saddened Champlain College social work major said before heading off to a LEAD mentoring meeting at the Center for Service and Civic Engagement.
One of the Division of Business' professionally focused PR majors, clearly shaken by the incident, looked up from her I-phone and vowed to create a Twitter hashtag #SammyGone to honor the missing statue and perhaps even a Facebook Fan page, especially if it might earn extra credit in #MKT420. "We want #SammyGone to return to #campchamp and be the Four Square mayor again! Maybe Radian 6 can help. We're ready to try anything at this point."
A student life representative suggested a candlelight vigil and cultural simulation exercise could be held before that evening's graduating seniors' "meet and mingle" networking dinner with the trustees in Argosy Gym. The editor of the school print-only newspaper, The Current, began working on a 2,000-word essay for the next issue, expected out in early May. It was too early to determine if the Champlain Social Media Breakfast Club would call an emergency meeting.
A special website tracking the progress of the search and the whereabouts of the Champlain statue was quickly created to help keep the campus community up to date on the statue status throughout the day, the college spokesman and news director said. Please check
http://champlainstatue.blogspot.com/ throughout the day for updates and follow the story on Twitter using the hashtag #SammyGone.
"This whole thing reminds me of that Balloon Boy incident out in Colorado a few months ago that got so much national attention" the college spokesman said. "This time, though, I hope it doesn't result in any jail time for those involved."
Filed: April 1, 2010
