Soapy bubbles fill Missouri State University fountain one day before graduation

Soapy bubbles filled Missouri State University's main fountain Thursday, the final day of classes.

Spring graduations are Friday.

The prankster likely used laundry detergent.

"This doesn’t happen very often," said Suzanne Shaw, vice president for marketing and communications. "Clean up is minimal compared to dye which requires extensive clean up and is very difficult to remove."

In early 2017, the university posted a Q&A with Leonard Haymans III, who is known on campus as the “Fountain Guy.”

For almost 10 years, Haymans has been the maintenance general mechanic of the John Q. Hammons Fountains, by the Meyer Library, and the fountain in front of Juanita K. Hammons Hall for the Performing Arts.

Haymans said pranks involving the fountains happen, but rarely.

"About five years ago, though, I found soap bubbles blowing up past the first floor of the library. It looked like the world’s biggest washing machine," he said in 2017.

"And last fall, when the Kansas City Royals won the World Series, somebody dyed the JQH fountain blue."

He said using soap is a bad idea.

"Soap bubbles affect the defoamer we put into the spas," he said. "And because it takes so much soap to make the fountains bubble, it causes the sand filters to clump so that we lose some of the filtration capabilities.

"Changing the sand filters is a labor-intensive job that I wouldn’t wish upon anyone."

But Haymans said soap is not as bad as dye or food coloring.

He said using dye can damage the seals of the fountain, which are made of rubber, ceramic and metal.

Haymes said the dye "could cause them to deteriorate faster, wear faster or just mess them up in general. It’s a big job, replacing those seals. Basically, seal replacement means a lot of hours of labor and a lot of expenses."

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