MERCHANTS' PLAN WILL HELP FUND RIVER CAMPUS

The Downtown Merchants Association has launched a fund-raising project to help fund Southeast Missouri State University's proposed River Campus.

The association is selling hand-engraved, three-dimensional flag prints designed by downtown artist Don Greenwood that read "Cape Girardeau, Missouri, Home of Rush Limbaugh."

The 11-by-14-inch matted print, made with five hand-engraved dyes, creates a three-dimensional effect with gold-embossed lettering.

Scott Lohmann, who will be a senior at the university this fall majoring in marketing and is a summer intern with the association, is heading the marketing program.

"We have 1,000 flags on hand, and more are available," said Lohmann.

The flags, which sell for $19.95 plus tax, are available at a number of downtown businesses including Judith Ann's, S. Gregg Gallery, Tom Higgins Accounting, Wine Cellar, Gift Box, Hutson Furniture, Port Cape Girardeau Restaurant, Shivelbine's, Steve-Mark, Mollies and Royal N'Orleans restaurants and C.P. McGintly Jewelry, and the Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitor's Bureau.

They can be ordered on the Internet at http://www.rushstuff.com

Downtown merchants, property owners and other downtown organizations have pledged to raise $1 million for the River Campus project. A plan calls for developing the former St. Vincent's Seminary on the banks of the Mississippi River into a school of visual and performing arts.

"We don't have a million dollars to give the university at this point, but we are going to work as hard as we can to raise the funds as fast as we can," said David Hutson, who was president of the merchants association when the pledge was made.

After the flag project was suggested, a five-person committee of David Knight, Don Greenwood, Carole Robert, Tom Higgins and John Hodges looked into it.

"We're certainly appreciative to the Limbaugh family for allowing us to carry through with the project," said Knight. "We feel the flag will attract the attention of tourists and travelers along with the local citizenry.

Limbaugh, a Cape Girardeau native, has one of the largest audiences of any radio talk show. He started hosting his nationally syndicated "The Rush Limbaugh Show" Aug. 1, 1988, with 56 stations and an audience of about 250,000. Today he is heard on 630 stations with an audience of 20 million people weekly.

Limbaugh has twice received the NAB Marconi Radio Award as the Syndicated Radio Personality of the Year. He was inducted last April into the National Association of Broadcasters' Broadcasting Hall of Fame.

More than $35 million is expected to be spent to redevelop old St. Vincent's Seminary into the River Campus, with about $9 million to be raised by the Southeast Missouri University Foundation.

The money pledged by the downtown merchants would go toward meeting the foundation's fund-raising goal.