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LAWRENCE -- Larger-than-life versions of the University of Kansas Jayhawk are coming home to nest. Jayhawk watchers have been looking forward to the first sighting of the rare "Jayhawks on Parade" species since news broke of their impending arrival.
The first giant Jayhawk reportedly has hatched and is making the last leg of its migration to Lawrence. Avid Jayhawk watchers can catch a glimpse of the just-hatched Jayhawk between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 11, at the Lawrence Visitor Information Center, 402 N. Second St.
More than 25 of the 5-foot-tall fiberglass Jayhawks, sponsored by area businesses and individuals and decorated by area artists, will be exhibited outdoors throughout the city from March through October, for the public to enjoy and as a celebration of the Jayhawk and the city it calls home.
Sponsors will designate nonprofit beneficiaries for each embellished bird and at the end of the exhibit, they will donate the fiberglass Jayhawks to the selected organizations.
The event is organized by the Lawrence Convention & Visitors Bureau, its advisory board and KU.
"It will be very exciting to see the base model that every artist will start with next month," said Judy Billings, Lawrence Convention & Visitors Bureau director. "Then in March, when the Parade is unveiled, the community will be able to see how imaginative and creative the artists were in taking the same form and interpreting it in so many different ways."
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