30,000 pack Y2K's 1st Kaleidoscope fair

Bright balloon arches highlighted the sky above Cal State Long Beach Saturday as thousands soaked up the sights and sounds of Kaleidoscope 2000.

The yearly event, which has been held since 1985, is an open-house type of festival that features academics as well as diversity.
 With more than 30,000 people in attendance, Kaleidoscope coordinator DeVon Davis said the event was a success.

"People really enjoyed the Upper Campus area, especially because of the new activities like Children's Day and Weaving the Dream," Davis said.  "The increased amount of activity on Upper Campus brought a different group of people looking for those events."

A trampoline, sponsored by the university's ROTC, was popular with jumpers and onlookers as well.

"It was really, really fun," said Robert Fallon Jr., 11, of Stanton, catching his breath after doing flips and somersaults in the air.

He was attached to a safety harness that was strung between the two poles on both sides of the trampoline.  A cadet pulled Fallon's legs down, making him soar several feet above the ground like a slingshot.

"Kaleidoscope is pretty cool," Fallon said. "It is really neat that there are things to do that I have never seen before. There are cool hats and balloons and exploding eggs."

Weaving the Dream, an interactive exhibit located in the central quad area of Upper Campus, allowed participants to weave pieces of cloth into a net, creating the Sacred Circle for Life, a symbol of community.

A portable meditation labyrinth, part of the Sacred Labyrinth Circle, another part of the exhibit, was a replica of the original at Chartes Cathedral in France, where religious pilgrims walked on it as a sacred journey, said volunteer Helena Sprake.

Temenos, a nonprofit organization from Long Beach, presented the labyrinth to signify a healing environment.

"'Temenos' is a Greek word that means the sacred space around a temple," said Deborah Short, founder of the organization. "We apply that definition to cancer survivors."

A petting zoo, sponsored by the Biology Student's Association, was located under the trees between Peterson Halls 1 and 2.  The animals, provided by Buckaroo Farms in Riverside, included a miniature burro, miniature Shetland pony, ducks, goats, chicks, bunnies and a piglet.

"I like the pig because she is so tiny," said 3-year-old Sofia Smith of San Pedro, who was trying to catch the black and pink pig as it slipped past her in the pen.

The Aquarium of the Pacific sponsored a booth to promote its new exhibit, "Jellies: Phantoms of the Deep," which opens in June.  Children were asked to go fishing for trash in the booth's wading pool.

"First we asked the children to go find a piece of trash on the ground and throw it in the garbage can," said Barbara Bailey, an environmental education volunteer at the aquarium.  "Then we asked them to go fishing for trash and tell us why the trash would be bad for the fish and animals in the water."