Museum curators to retire

     By Tina Allen
     View staff writer
      Pat Coon and Paula Anderson aren't your typical museum curators. But then again, neither is their museum.
      The two Clark County School District teachers operate the Museum Without Walls -- a traveling exhibit including more than 40 programs, with artifacts collected during many of their own travels.
      The two have spent the past 10 years opening doors for children to view the world they might not otherwise see.
      Now, after each spending 34 years teaching in the district, Coon and Anderson are going in another direction: retirement. They gave their final presentation at Deskin Elementary School May 25.
      "It has been one of the most incredible experiences," Anderson said. "This is truly the job to die for.
      "I think (the best part) is I get to deal with the subjects I love the most and I get to deal with the kids. They are so excited and so receptive," Anderson said. "It's just getting to show kids different parts of the world."
      The idea for the program was developed by Coon, a former biology teacher at Rancho High School.
      "We really wanted to do something to create interest in the sciences and in anthropology and technology," Coon said.
      She and her students had developed a miniature class museum with live animals, which garnered the attention of other classes. Coon thought about having a school museum built for youth from other schools to visit, but quickly realized it wouldn't be financially feasible. She decided it would be easier to bring the museum to them.
      Joined by Anderson and Steve Scott, also Rancho teachers at the time, the three piloted the program for one year. It quickly caught the attention of Clark County School District Superintendent Brian Cram, who offered the trio full-time positions with their traveling museum. Scott plans to continue the program next year.
      They have since brought their presentations to more than a half million school children throughout the district, as far away as Laughlin.
      The program is divided into three categories -- social studies, geology and biology -- which cover everything from kachina dolls to mining in Nevada. Designed for first- to 12th-graders, the presentations take anywhere from 60 to 90 minutes.
      The fifth-graders from Deskin Elementary School spent a class period touring the Treasures of Tutankhamun before Coon and Anderson closed the doors to their work.
      Seeing slides of mummies captured the attention of most of the pupils as did Anderson's talk about the process.
      "I liked seeing how the mummies didn't look as dead as they were," said pupil Corey Brewer. "Their faces kind of looked the same. I'd like to see the jewelry and how they made it with all the special stones and the gold."
      Jallisa Butler said she would like to see the pyramids in Egypt some day.
      "It would be exciting," she said.
      Julia Cheshewalla hopes to do the same.
      "I would like to visit Egypt someday and see inside the pyramids and see all the jewelry they made back then and see some mummies," Cheshewalla said.
      In the past decade, Coon and Anderson never really stopped working. Even on their vacations they were constantly looking for artifacts, studying the areas they visited or searching for stories to bring back to the children.
      There are few places the two haven't been in the world.
      Anderson's interest in travel was piqued during a volunteer expedition to Borneo in 1984 to study orangutans, one of her favorite animals. It was there she had found an abandoned baby orangutan that had been illegally raised in captivity hidden in a cage in the bushes. It was her job to help him reunite with the wild by teaching him to climb, eat food found in the wilderness and build a nest.
      A year later she volunteered to research Rhesus monkeys in Katmandu. After that it was off to Africa. She has been exploring the world ever since, including trips to China, Turkey, Morocco and Thailand.
      A sampling of the places Coon has traveled to include Egypt, Russia, the Ukraine, Kenya, the Amazon and Costa Rica.
      "Most of our vacations we either end up sitting in the mud in the middle of a rainforest or riding on the back of an elephant," Coon said.
      What's next for the retired pair?
      Anderson is looking forward to trips to Mongolia and New Guinea -- it's just a matter of convincing friends to go with her, she said.
      Coon also has some places she would like to see, including New Zealand, Australia and Alaska.
      But for now, she said, "I think the next thing I'm going to do is take a very relaxing train ride through the Canadian Rockies. The scenery is suppose to be spectacular."