News from the Museum
Grants
April brought the outstanding news that the Museum had received
crucial operational grants from the TransCanada Corporation and the Wellborn Ecology Fund of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation [NHCF].
The grant from TransCanada allows the Museum to continue to operate the Watershed Visitor Center Fish Ladder facility in Bellows Falls as a satellite museum; to expand exhibits, hands-on activities, and public programs there; to provide summer weekend staffing; to offer a new one-week River Discovery Camp for young people ages 6-8 this summer; and to continue the successful collaborations between the Museum, Rockingham Free Public Library, and Ascutney Mountain Audubon Society that have mounted so many informative free monthly programs at the library in Bellows Falls.
The Wellborn grant allows the Museum to continue its inspiring and well respected nature-journaling and nature-writing summer institutes for educators with partial course funding for educators working in Vermont and New Hampshire towns in NHCF's Upper Valley service area. It will also allow the Museum to expand library, school, and community contacts and programs within that same region. Library programs, in fact, have already begun that build upon the Museum's long-time collaboration with Ascutney Mountain Audubon by partnering with the Springfield Public Library on a series of free public programs, and the Riverside Middle School's Sustainable Agriculture and Garden program is scheduled for this spring and coming fall.
Exhibits: The World Came to...Bellows Falls
In light of the Pale Blue Dot, the Museum contacted museums in New England to establish rapport with the purpose of sharing exhibits and information. The EcoTarium in Worcester, MA, was eager to donate to another nonprofit museum a massive globe of the Earth that was the perfect Pale Blue Dot. As we gathered measurements and details to determine how to transport the Earth and considered the mechanics of attaching two halves of the globe together after transport, we decided that the doorway leading upstairs in the Museum was just too tight to chance any possible deviation in the exact half of the Earth.
So, alas, the world could not literally come to Grafton for our event. But it did go to the Fish Ladder, where it fit easily and clearly demonstrates the large amount of salt water on Earth, and the small amount of fresh water upon which we all depend. It is a dramatic and effective teaching tool there, and we urge you to go see it.
We also urge you to visit the Museum in Grafton. Many new exhibits were put in place for the Pale Blue Dot. If you haven't been to the Museum since Memorial Day weekend, you will be surprised by the additions and changes. The Mother of Invention displays, text on marked orange placards with a Monarch Butterfly's wing, should prompt many discussions about how we look at nature and learn from it to create new inventions, associations, and ways to communicate.
New or Coming to the Museum
Sign. The Museum's new grey tree frog logo is proudly displayed on a new sign in front of the Museum, as well as on our stationery.
Volunteers for Peace. Ten international college students are coming August 8-21 to improve trails at the Village Park, behind the Museum, and at Grafton Ponds. During their time here they and two supervisors will need 38 meals. We are
looking for donations of food, produce, or money to augment the small allowance they are given to provide and cook their meals. If you are able to help, please let Lynn Morgan know your donation by July 17. We and the steep Blue Trail will thank you!
