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Messiah
students to demonstrate mock
minefield for VIPs at Washington, D.C.
landmine awareness event
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GRANTHAM, Pa. (Jan. 27, 2004) — A team of Messiah College
engineering students, as part of the Messiah College Landmine Action Project
(MCLAP), have created a mock minefield—an electronic reproduction
of a typical minefield similar to those found all over the world—to
demonstrate for guests at the Marshall Legacy Institute awards and benefit
gala on Wednesday, Jan. 28, in Washington, D.C.
“The problem of buried antipersonnel landmines is an issue that doesn’t
receive much attention in this country because we don’t deal with
mines on a daily basis,” says Don Pratt, associate professor of engineering
at Messiah College and advisor to MCLAP. “If our children had to
walk through areas known to contain landmines, as children in many other
countries do, we would be much more interested in working to end the placement
of new mines and finding better ways to rid the world of those already
in the ground.”
The Marshall Legacy Institute’s “Clearing the Path to a Safer
World” gala is its second annual awards and benefit event designed
to recognize the critical role of individual leadership in identifying
and alleviating the plight of people and animals in landmine-contaminated
countries. The gala will honor six international champions who have challenged,
motivated and inspired individuals, communities and nations to create
a safer world free from the threat of landmines. The master of ceremonies
for the gala is George Stephanopoulos, host of ABC’s “This Week”
and former White House Senior Advisor on Policy and Strategy for the Clinton
administration. Gala honorees include Her Majesty Queen Sirikit of Thailand.
Presentors include the Honorable Anthony Lake, former Assistant to the
President for National Security Affairs, and senators Chuck Hagel (R-Nebraska)
and Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont).
Part of Messiah's mock minefield includes simulated antipersonnel
landmines (left) which are hidden in the field and activate
an explosion sound when stepped on. |
Click
photo to download high-resolution version |
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During the event, the team from the Messiah College Landmine Action Project
will demonstrate their simulated minefield, allowing participants to experience
what it might be like to live in a mined area and to better identify with
the plight of those who do. The demonstration uses simulated spring-loaded
landmines hidden within a mock field. When participants step on one of the
mines crossing the field, a pre-recorded explosion noise sounds indicating
a mine was detonated. MCLAP first tested the mock minefield for the college’s
Grantham campus last year.
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Initially created for outdoor demos, the MCLAP mock minefield
was modified for indoor use by using cardboard to create a
countoured minefield landscape, complete with "buried"
landmines, which will be covered in Astroturf.
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Click
photo to download high-resolution version
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“Although for a number of years I have been keenly aware of the staggering
extent of the landmine problem around the globe, the act of stepping into
that simulated minefield on Messiah’s campus brought the true reality
of the problem uncomfortably close to home—right under my feet, to
be precise,” said Ray Norman, dean of Messiah’s School of Mathematics,
Engineering and Business, after walking across the mock minefield. “The
weight of the sense of insecurity and uncertainty stayed with me long after
my ‘trial run’—leaving me with the indelible feeling of what
it must be like for the millions in our world who live with that each time
they step out in their own backyards.”
MCLAP is a group of Messiah College students dedicated to removing existing
landmines and preventing their use, rehabilitating landmine survivors and
reintegrating them into society, and educating society about landmines and
their effects. Landmines maim or kill more than 10,000 people and hundreds
of thousands of animals each year, and impede economic development in more
than 60 countries around the world.
Members of the MCLAP team include engineering majors Mark Graybill, a senior
from Mount Joy, Pa.; Nathan Shaffer, a junior from Middleburg, Pa.; Brian
Thompson, a senior from Egg Harbor Township, N.J.; and Benjamin Patnode,
a first-year mathematics major student from Oakdale, Conn. To learn more
about MCLAP, visit www.messiah.edu/mclap.
The Marshall Legacy Institute (MLI) is a nonprofit, international humanitarian
organization formed in the 50th anniversary year of the “Marshall Plan”
to extend the vision of General George C. Marshall to address 21st-century
problems. MLI applies skills and resources to building indigenous capacity
in the developing world to alleviate suffering, restore hope and create
conditions that nurture stability. The current focus of MLI is assisting
nations in building affordable and sustainable programs to free their land
of the destabilizing and devastating effects of landmines. To learn more
about The Marshall Legacy Institute, visit www.mashall-legacy.org.
Messiah College, a private Christian college of the liberal and applied
arts and sciences, enrolls more than 2,900 undergraduate students in 60
majors. Established in 1909, the primary campus is located in Grantham,
Pa., near the state capital of Harrisburg. A satellite campus affiliated
with Temple University is located in Philadelphia.
# # #
ARTICLE
DATE TUESDAY,
JANUARY 27, 2004
ARTICLE NUMBER:
MC-014-04
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