BC Tent Saves the World

All better now!

During our recent visit to the State House, the EarthView team noticed a bit of a problem. Only two things can really go wrong with EarthView -- the fan and the zipper. We always travel with a spare fan, but a zipper is a not easily replaced! Fortunately, one of our geography students has learned watch repair in her family's shop, and working with small gears is close enough to working with zippers that she was able to keep EarthView working. The next day, we managed to open and close EarthView a few more times during a short program at the Howe-Manning School in Middleton.

As soon as we became aware of the problem, though, we knew that the real solution was to call BC Tent in Avon. Shortly after acquiring EarthView, we had taken it there for a bit of upkeep and patching, and for a zipper. Most of our 35,000 visitors have passed through EarthView's Prime Meridian since then, so it was time for a replacement. This is not an ordinary bit of sewing, nor does anybody keep this kind of zipper on hand. But BC Tent got to work right away, making sure we would have the zipper in place without losing any program time. We were also glad we could count on our team behind the scenes at BSU -- Kathie Manning, Dr. Diana Jennings, and Fred Clark -- to make sure this worked out seamlessly.

Even BC Tent's huge workshop is not big enough for a traditional EarthView photo op. CEO Bob Costa and general manager Rhona Dias did proudly pose with EarthView when it was all patched up and ready to start touring again. Not pictured is the real hero of the moment -- BC Tent's technician and fabric magician Edson, who also made that bag that -- amazingly -- holds a 20-foot globe. Their team's advice to our team: periodic zipper maintenance with beeswax!