Cairo bears get their closeup
The Daily Mail
Jan. 10, 2009

Cairo will get a first glimpse of “Aurora Bearealis” and the other 39 bears of the Bears and Butterflies project this Sunday at Gallagher’s Banquet Hall on Main Street.

Sunday’s rendering reception is a chance for the bears’ sponsors to meet the artists who will turn the statues into art. But this event is also an opportunity for the public to get a preview of the bears that may soon be coming to a sidewalk or storefront near them.

“Part of the fun and excitement of the whole project is to see what the artists will come up with,” Sue Hilgendorff, a project organizer, said in an e-mail.

Each sponsor will select the rendering they want for their bear.

“It’s first come, first served,” she said.

Once finished, the bears will not all be placed along Cairo’s Main Street, as are the cats in Catskill, but instead will be spread across the town’s hamlets.

Event organizers hope that a game they have incorporated into the bears to celebrate the quadricentennial of Henry Hudson’s voyage up the Hudson River, will encourage residents and visitors alike to explore parts of the town they do not usually see.

Each bear’s pattern will include a butterfly, and each butterfly will contain a letter or symbol that will correspond to a question about Henry Hudson. Those who can answer all 39 questions will become eligible to win cash and prizes.

Unlike “Aurora Bearealis,” which has already been painted by Jim Cramer, the other bears have not been assigned themes.

“The renderings we have received so far are all fabulous and varied,” Hilgendorff wrote.

The reception will last from 2 until 4 p.m., and is open to the public at $5 per person.