Fun Salamander Facts

The 2008 Salamander Festival has been set for
January 26, 2008
Watch this spot for details

As I hope you can tell from the pictures to the left, the 2007 Salamander Festival was a great success. Homewood's Spotted Salamanders have many new friends.

On behalf of Samford I wish to thanks Michelle and her many helpers for putting this year's Festival together. Her helpers included those who provided the building, brought displays, helped with crafts, provided great music, made balloon fantasies, sold salamander items, sold snacks, answered questions, greeted visitors, and wore salamander jewelry! It was a great night for salamanders! We even had a light rain just to help us get in the right mood! Unfortunately, I don't think we had enough rain to start a migration (I didn't get a call). Perhaps the big migration is yet to occur!

Thanks to Jim Brown and Ken Marion for delighting crowds of salamander admirers with living examples of all of the different kinds of salamanders that live on the Homewood Forest Preserve! They even had a Tiger Salamander for people to see. I'm told that the Tiger Salamander lives in Alabama, but not in Homewood.

Thanks also to Mayor McCulley and the City Council members who were in attendance (I may not have spotted all of them who were there). Several employees of the City of Homewood were also present!

Thanks to the students of Our Lady of Sorrows School for the Salamander artwork!

Thanks are due as well to those who attended; to those who purchased T-shirts, Salamander Crossing signs or Salamander pens; and to those who would have attended had they not had other obligations!

Next year should be even better!

Bill Mathews, Jr.