What Fish?
For most of the last several decades, one element in the One Great Hour of Sharing materials has remained constant. Dozens of new themes have come and gone, along with a parade of posters, but except for a few years in the late 1990s, the coin box has been shaped like a fish.

Beginning next year, the coin box will not be the only fish among the One Great Hour of Sharing resources. Making its debut in the 2007 children’s materials will be a new character, a fish called—well, we don’t know its name yet. That will be decided in a contest in which all Sunday school classes are invited to participate.

History
Since the late 1970s, the coin box had been such a predictable part of the offering—even to its color scheme, a blue fish with golden fins—that some of its more irreverent supporters began referring to it as the “One Great Shower of Herring.” In 1994, after a few adults complained that the fish box was too difficult to assemble—though children didn’t seem to have a problem with it—the ecumenical committee responsible for creating One Great Hour of Sharing resources deep-sixed the fish boxes. It was replaced with a box that technically was a hexagonal prism. This box went through several versions, one standing on its end and others lying on their sides, with images on the side ranging from a map of the world to photographs of children around the world. Not surprisingly, it came to be called the world coin box.

But as the offering’s 50th anniversary approached in 1999, the committee decided to bring back the fish for one nostalgic encore. The response was so positive that ever since, the presence of the fish coin box has been assured. Since that time, it has regularly changed its appearance, though it continues to have the graceful shape of an undernourished guppy. As it will be with us for a while, we’re including an illustrated set of easy instructions (see below) for those who still recoil at  the prospect of assembling the piscine puzzler. 

The Contest
We want to invite all Sunday school classes to create names for the fish. For each name you wish to submit, send a card or letter to Name the Fish, c/o One Great Hour of Sharing, 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, Kentucky, 40202-1396. Or send e-mail to Alan Krome. All suggestions should be submitted by May 31, 2006.

Names will be judged on the basis of creativity and appropriateness. If there is a special reason your class chose a particular name, feel free to include it. The judges reserve the right to be swayed by these rationales.

Up to five classes will be declared winners. Whoever submits the winning name first (determined by postmark or e-mail date) will definitely be one of the winners. If there are more than five classes submitting the winning name, the other four winners will be drawn at random from all those submitting the selected name.

What Will You Win?
The winners will be announced at the 217th General Assembly in Birmingham in June 2006. Aside from the fame and glory, the class(es) submitting the winning entry will receive a large, stuffed version of a fish coin box, with the winning name and the class name.

Seven Easy Steps for Assembling a Fish Box

1. Take the flat fish in your hand so that all your fingers are on one edge and your thumbs on the other. Press gently until the box begins to bow open.

2. Hold the box between your middle finger and your thumb, with one hand on the crease just at the edge of the mouth and the other at the crease where the tail begins. Press until both creases pop into place. The sides of the fish will bulge out at this point.

3. (The secret step most often overlooked.) Continuing to keep your thumb and finger on the tail so that it stays in place, press in on the bulging sides of the fish until they collapse inward. The mouth of the fish may also collapse at this point. This is not a problem.

4. Fold in the shorter flaps of the mouth end. Then fold the blank flap down and insert the tab of the printed flap into the slot on the blank flap.

5. Repeat procedure #4 for the tail flaps.

6.Set the fish box down with a show of humility.

7. On the seventh step, rest. Look upon your handiwork and see that it is good. Tape the tabs if you’re afraid the fish will burst under the strain of the dimes and quarters it will hold. Take a moment to count how many fish banks the children have assembled in the time it took for you to assemble this one. Marvel.