“A Ssspecial Place for Coby,” a Parkland College-inspired and created coloring book, is being distributed to Champaign-Urbana kindergarteners.
The coloring book follows the lighthearted adventure of Parkland’s beloved mascot, Coby the Cobra, as he visits his good friends around the college and tries to decide his own perfect place to live and work.
Parkland is distributing courtesy copies to C-U kindergarten classes initially. It will be available at Champaign and Urbana public libraries, through Carle’s Healthy Beginnings, and at Parkland’s welcome desk in the Student Union (U building) Oct. 21.
Vice President for Communications and External Affairs Stephanie Stuart said the book came about through conversations with Associate Vice President for Academic Services Nancy Sutton, focusing on how they could connect with families with young children to cultivate learning.
“This has been a very challenging year for families,” Stuart said. “We wanted to offer the coloring book for free as a fun learning activity that families can do together. By reading the story and coloring the pictures, kids will get to know our mascot, Coby, a little better along with all that Parkland has to offer the community. We hope that young ones in our community can find bits of themselves in that journey and the characters Coby meets along the way.”
The coloring book was created by the Parkland Marketing and Public Relations Department with the help of its Spring 2020 interns, Graphic Design program students Alex Lutz and Emiley Briggs. The two students illustrated the book as part of a project for their COM 292 class, Media and Arts Production. The professor, Matthew Watt, served as a design consultant along with Marketing’s graphic designers, Gabrielle Rodmaker and Jake Tatar. Marketing Associate Director Ruthie Counter and her daughter, Parkland grad Megan Counter, collaborated as writers for the story.
Parkland plans to sponsor a mail-in coloring contest for kindergarteners later in the semester. A PDF from the book is available for printing at parkland.edu/coloringbook.