April & May 2003 issue
Contents:
Letter From Lindy
Not Gross But Gigantic
Benefit Sets New Bench-mark
Children's Hospital Helps
Kids Learn Ins and Outs of Vomiting
Grossology Plays Big on
Cable
Letter From Lindy
We are headed into spring, the time of year where life renews
itself, the greyness of winter fades away and colors jump
out from everywhere. It is also the time where dozens of
volunteers, known as the Rainbow Connector’s Guild,
put the finishing touches on the annual For the Kid’s
Benefit, a fundraiser that supports the many programs and
exhibits at the Omaha Children’s Museum.
The benefit theme this year is Generations, a chance to
celebrate and honor the many generations of people who have
supported, visited and helped make this museum the special
place it is. I am especially grateful to this year’s
committee chairs, Dee Owen, Carolyn Owen Anderson and Laurie
Kay, three generations of women who have supported the museum
through many stages of its life. Our honorary chairs are
Sandy and Dave Parker, long-time supporters and full-time
cheerleaders for the Omaha Children’s Museum.
As generations have passed through the years, I think of
all the ways the world has changed. My grandmother celebrated
her 89th birthday in October. She comes from a generation
that saw the automobile take off as a major means of transportation,
watched a man walk on the moon and witnessed our country
both struggle through hard times and war and prosper in
times of peace. Radio and TV weren’t even a part of
my grandmother’s childhood. Then, I think about my
own son, who will grow up surrounded by innovations such
as cell phones, internet and satellite television. Who can
say what changes he’ll witness.
One thing I know my son will have in common with his great-grandmother
is the experience of childhood. Childhood is the time we
all have in common, the time we discover who we are and
what this amazing world is we live in. At the Omaha Children’s
Museum, we get the distinct honor of preserving that childhood
for ourselves, for generations that came before and for
many generations to follow.
If you have never attended the For the Kid’s Benefit,
I encourage you to consider celebrating the Generations
of childhood and joining us on Saturday, May 3. For information
on how to get tickets, please call Kelli Draper at 991-1933.
back to
top
Not Gross But Gigantic
By now, you have probably heard—people
are flocking to the museum to see Grossology. They just
can’t stay away from Nigel Nose-It-All, the Vomit
Center or the Sniff Sniff Station.
But eventually traveling exhibits have to travel, leaving
a big, Grossology-sized hole in our hearts and on the museum’s
second floor. So what are we going to do?
We’re filling the second floor with Theme Park: The
Art and Science of Universal Studios Islands of Adventure,
an exhibit three times the size of Grossology, packed with
dinosaurs from Jurassic Park, characters from Dr. Suess,
Marvel superheros and much more.
Theme Park opens Sat., May 31, with a membership preview,
8:30 – 10 a.m. The exhibit opens to the public at
10 a.m. on May 31, running through Sept.14.
Sponsored by Kodak and Commercial Federal Bank, Theme Park
goes where visitors have never gone before: behind the scenes
to the inner workings of a theme park. With hands-on learning
and fun, the exhibit shows just how a theme park grows from
an idea into a reality.
“It’s so big,” said Tom Simons, director
of education for the Omaha Children’s Museum, “that
when I saw Theme Park in North Carolina, the museum there
had to break it up into sections because they couldn’t
fit it in one place.”
In fact, many museums, particularly children’s museums,
cannot accommodate the exhibit’s 8,000 square-foot
size. That’s where the Omaha Children’s Museum’s
second floor comes in handy. With 11,000 square feet of
uninterrupted space, the museum can handle nearly any traveling
exhibit likely to come to a children’s museum.
“With Grossology upstairs, guests keep telling us
how great it is that we offer more for older kids,”
said Lindy Hoyer, executive director of the Omaha Children’s
Museum.
“Theme Park will give us another traveling exhibit
for that same age group during our busiest season.”
Like Universal Studios Islands of Adventure theme park in
Florida, the 8,000-square-foot Theme Park exhibit, masterminded
by Clear Channel Exhibitions in San Antonio, Texas, is divided
into six different sub-headings: Port of Entry; Themeing
(Seuss Landing); Splash (Toon Lagoon); Illusion (Marvel
Super Hero Island); Showbotics (featuring Jurassic Park),
and Thrill (featuring The Lost Continent).
Port of Entry is an overview, a jumping-off point that asks
the question, “What makes a theme park experience
impossible to forget?” Showbotics explores how robotics
(in this case, dinosaurian) contribute to theme park realism.
Splash (Toon Lagoon) masterfully illustrates how water rides
use and carefully conserve H2O. Themeing (Seuss Landing)
walks visitors through the evolution of a two-dimensional
book as it magically moves into a three-dimensional realm.
Thrill examines the physics of the roller coaster. Illusion,
featuring Universal’s state-of-the-art Marvel Super
Hero Island, offers a glimpse into how optical illusions
and virtual reality will bring theme parks into the 21st
century.
“It’s our chance to share the magical blend
of science and artistry that goes into creating a world-class
theme park,” said Jim Yeager, senior vice president,
Universal Studios Public Relations and Publicity. “We
wanted to give kids a fresh way of looking at physics, geometry
and engineering. We wanted to inspire exciting new answers
to the question, ‘What can I do with math and science?’”
A team of more than a hundred theme park specialists and
designers actually created the multimedia exhibit.
back to
top
Benefit Sets New Bench-mark
Top artists from around the midwest are hard
at work, creating whimsical, one-of-a-kind benches that
will be auctioned off at this year’s “For the
Kids” benefit. You can see the benches if you visit
the museum the week of April 27. Bids on them can be made
anytime between April 27 and May 3.
The benches symbolize this year’s benefit theme: “Generations
. . . shared times and memories.” Chairing the fundraiser
are three generations of Owens: Dee Owen, her daughter Carolyn
Owen Anderson, and her granddaughter, Laurie Kay.
Coming to Omaha for our event is Mr. McFeely of Mr. Roger’s
Neighborhood, renowned for his “speedy delivery.”
Later this year, the museum will host a traveling display
from the set of Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood.
The 2003 “For the Kids” Benefit happens Saturday,
May 3. The museum will close early May 2 and will be be
closed all of May 3 to prepare for our biggest fundraiser
of the year. Five hundred guests are expected to attend,
enjoying cocktails, a silent auction and the “Grossology”
exhibit. A dinner and oral auction will follow. Honorary
chairs are Dave and Sandy Parker.
Tickets are $100 per person. The patron level costs $150
per person and includes a champagne pre-party.
For more information, call the President of the Museum’s
Rainbow Connector’s Guild, Donna Erker, 551-8527.
back to
top
Children's Hospital Helps Kids Learn
Ins and Outs of Vomiting
To hurl, toss your cookies or lose your lunch—these
are just a smattering (or splattering, as the case may be)
of the many very colorful terms for what is technically
known as reverse peristalsis.
Visitors to Grossology: The (Impolite) Science of the Human
Body learn at the Vomit Center the process the human body
goes through before throwing up. When visitors figure out
the right sequence of steps, they’re rewarded by the
familiar sound of someone heaving.
Thanks to Children’s Hospital, sponsor of the Vomit
Center, visitors can not only have fun but can also take
away valuable information for use whenever the subject comes
up.
Grossology focuses on the helping kids understand their
own bodies. So does Children’s Hospital.
It was natural, then, that Children’s Hospital would
want to be involved in helping the museum bring Grossology
to Omaha.
“When we first heard about Grossology, we knew right
away that Children’s Hospital had to be a part of
bringing it here. Like the Children’s Museum, we knew
it was going to be a hit with kids. The hardest part for
me was deciding which piece of the exhibit to sponsor. We
were vacillating between the vomit center and the smell
center so we tossed a coin. It came up heads,” said
Laura Gell, Marketing and Community Relations manager for
Children’s Hospital.
Children’s Hospital, a non-profit organization caring
for children since 1948, is the only pediatric specialty
health care center in Nebraska. In addition to pediatric
care, the hospital provides treatment of complex or unusual
diseases for patients referred from throughout the region.
In 2000, Children’s Hospital moved into a new, nine
story building. The facility has a total of nine floors,
including three medical surgical floors, each with 24 single-occupancy
rooms. The hospital also has a 16-bed pediatric intensive
care unit, a 46-bed neonatal intensive care unit and an
8-bed eating disorders unit.
“The new Children’s Hospital offers a wonderful
child-focused, healing environment,” said Gell.
back to
top
Grossology Plays Big
on Cable
There is no doubt about it, Grossology has
made a huge impact on the Omaha Children’s Museum.
Nearly twice as many people have been coming through the
museum’s doors as were a year ago.
Media sponsor Cox Communications helped make that possible.
“Grossology is an exhibit that really sells itself,”
said Joe Seda, director of engineering operations of Cox
Communications in Omaha, “but people need to hear
about it from somewhere.”
That’s where Cox stepped in to fill the gap. Non-profit
organizations typically do not have large advertising budgets,
and the Omaha Children’s Museum is no exception. Cox
took the Grossology commercial spot and the modest amount
that the museum had budgeted for advertising on cable and
multiplied it greatly through donated air time.
“We could never have gotten the frequency without
the support of Cox Communications,” said Lindy Hoyer,
executive director of the museum. “It really kept
the museum in front of people.”
As the fourth largest cable provider in the nation, Cox
Communications Inc. is well suited to providing exposure
through the many networks it offers. Some 180,000 subscribers
in the Omaha area use one or more of Cox’s many services,
including digital cable, digital telephone and high speed
internet access.
Beyond sponsorship of Grossology, Cox Communications has
served as a vital community partner to the Omaha Children’s
Museum for many years. Even today, Cox maintains its popular
Cox TV news station exhibit at the museum.
Seda said, “We’ve made a long-term commitment
to the Omaha Children’s Museum and are very pleased
to see how well Grossology has done under this partnership.”
back to
top
