The big chicken-wire-and-papier-maché Ralphie in Room 350 of the University Memorial Center isn't smiling. In fact, she's downright sad.

Wrapped in a full body cast made of strips of white T-shirts, only her brown buffalo feet, furry head and glued-on tail poke out.

The University of Colorado's beloved mascot is (pretend) hurt. And the students of the CU chapter of the public advocacy group Colorado Public Interest Research Group, who built the 4-foot-by-4-foot buffalo-in-a-body-cast, plan to use her injuries to draw attention to the need for health care reform.

Starting today and continuing throughout the month, CoPIRG will parade their Ralphie through the UMC, asking students to sign her cast. They hope to collect 1,000 signatures.

Once they do, they will present her -- along with stacks of signed petitions, photographs, personal health care stories and satirical YouTube videos -- to the offices of U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet and Mark Udall.

Alissa Jameson, a 21-year-old CU senior and coordinator of the chapter's health care reform campaign, said she hopes Ralphie sends a clear (and wooly) message to Colorado's politicians that students care about fixing the health care system.

She figures the messenger will be tough to ignore.

"It's not your usual way to have a petition," said Jameson, a political science major. "I think legislators would rather have something random and cool and crazy than a big stack of papers."

CoPIRG made the frame of their Ralphie out of a sawhorse and two-by-fours,

CoPIRG members Jennifer Youngman, left, and Alissa Jameson decorate a papier-maché Ralphie being used as a petition this week to raise awareness of health care reform on the University of Colorado campus. ( KASIA BROUSSALIAN )
and then covered the whole thing in chicken wire. They put papier-maché on top of the wire and wrapped the midsection in strips of white promo T-shirts left over from a climate-change campaign. The head and feet are blanketed in brown felt and fur, and the horns are pieces of rolled-up construction paper.

The construction took about two weeks, CoPIRG members said.

"In the beginning, we had no idea what we were going to do," said freshman and CoPIRG member Jennifer Youngman. "As time progressed, it began to look more and more like a buffalo."

Other members credit Jameson; it was her brainchild, they said.

"I wanted it to be big," Jameson said of Ralphie's size. "I hope it throws people off. I hope people say, like, 'Hey, did you see that big buffalo for health care reform? What's up with that?'"

Getting students' attention was another reason to build the injured Ralphie, members said. Oftentimes, students don't think about their health insurance until they've graduated and no longer are covered by their parents' plans. One of CoPIRG's goals is to educate students before it's too late.

"They really need to think about what's going to happen when they're on their own," said freshman CoPIRG member Mariah La Rue, about her fellow students. "I think about how much it could cost me if I had to go to the doctor without health insurance -- and that's a scary thought."

CoPIRG is pushing for several reforms, including making insurance more affordable, prohibiting insurers from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions and streamlined billing.

Jameson said she thinks those are reforms students will support.

"We all want to be healthy," she said.