The Ogopogo room at the Vernon Boys and Girls Club now has its own Ogopogina.
A familiar sight to children at the Vernon branch of the Okanagan Regional Library, where it lived for the past 23 years, the paper maché sculpture of a dragon has been relocated to the Vernon Boys and Girls Club.
Local artist and Headbones Gallery owner Julie Oakes originally made the sculpture for her exhibition IWWAP (I am a Woman with a Past) at the Vernon Public Art Gallery in 1987.
“The dragon was one of a number of paper maché sculptures displayed alongside paintings,” she said. “The dragon was a symbol of the spark of life as it is recognized in Eastern iconography.”
After the exhibition, Oakes donated the dragon to the children’s department of the Vernon library, where it was dubbed Ogopogo.
As the new Vernon library building is unable to accommodate the sculpture, Kirstie Blanleil, director of the Vernon Boys and Girls Club, was eager to adopt it, said Oakes.
Chief librarian Maureen Curry handed the sculpture back to Oakes and it rode through the back streets of Vernon to arrive at its new home April 11.
“It will now fly from the rafters of the Ogopogo room, a meeting space for children ranging from three years old to 12 years old,” said Oakes. “And because it has such a pretty face, the Boys and Girls Club have determined that it is a girl and so will ride the air waves of the children’s space as Ogopogina.”
