Yellow Jackets Invade Ashland!

Yellow Jackets are swarming down Henry Street on the campus of Randolph-Macon College. Their sting won’t hurt, but you may come down with a case of Yellow Jacket Fever!

On Monday, January 7, 2008, Randolph-Macon College, in concert with the Town of Ashland, began melting 18 Yellow Jackets on the streets of Ashland. These mascots are approximately six feet in diameter and are literally melted onto the asphalt. Currently, eight of them are on Henry Street in the northbound lane between England Street and the football field. Due to the thermal process used, the weather has to be at least 55 degrees so they will adhere to the asphalt permanently. For this reason, the remaining 10 mascots will be melted onto England Street this spring. Since this process requires the temporary closing of travel lanes, these will be installed in the near future during the evening hours to minimize the impact on traffic and not affect access to businesses along England Street. These Yellow Jackets will begin as crumb trails, just west of U.S. Route One and will continue until they connect with the Yellow Jackets already on Henry Street.

“This is a terrific way to spread school spirit and raise visibility of the college throughout Ashland,” said R-MC president Robert Lindgren. “We could not have done this without the tremendous cooperation and assistance of the Ashland town officials and the Ashland Police Department. It’s exciting that this project is coming to fruition!”

The Richmond Times-Dispatch also covered the unveiling of R-MC’s Yellow Jackets – visit the following link to see the photo and caption that appeared on the front page of their January 8th Metro Section: http://www.rmc.edu/RichmondTimes-YellowJackets-Jan7-2008.pdf

Randolph-Macon invites everyone to visit the campus soon and check out this new addition. But beware – you just may catch “Yellow Jacket Fever!”

For more information on this and other news and events at Randolph-Macon College, please contact Pam Cox at (804) 752-3712 or at pamelacox@rmc.edu, or Anne Marie Lauranzon at (804) 752-7317 or at alauanz@rmc.edu.