The atrium of the Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies will have a look different from this one of last Friday when town children build a miniature City of Oberlin here. PHOTOGRAPHS BY HOLLY MATYAS
			Center for Service and Learning Helps Local Children Build a Kids City By Sue Kropp
			NOVEMBER 10, 1999--The Oberlin College Center for Service and Learning (CSL) and the third grade classes of Prospect Elementary School will open the newly built Kids City to the public Saturday, November 13. The event, which will feature a model town built by the children, will take place in the Oberlin College Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies from 10 A.M. to 3 P.M. On Friday, November 12, the children will assemble the model city. City Manager Rob DiSpirito and Oberlin College President Nancy Dye will welcome the children from Prospect Elementary and participate in a ribbon-cutting ceremony with the Kids City mayor-for-the-day. The model city is a miniature of Oberlin, and includes several College structures. During Saturday's open house, community members can participate in the building boom by constructing models of their own houses for the town. CSL staff members and student volunteers will issue building permits, monitor the city's growth, distribute building supplies, and teach the creative use of recycled materials. Children will act out the roles of city officials; including mayor, town-council members, school-board members, planning commissioners, and developers. "Kids City is a great way to teach kids," says Caitlin Scott, assistant director of the CSL. "They'll learn about architecture, city planning, and sustainable environmental design--and they'll have fun." Members of the Oberlin College Environmental Studies Program will give tours of the new environmental-studies center during the event.
			Landscaping has begun around the environmental-studies center.
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