Wielding a palm of fire like a warlock or simulating zero gravity via VR, the Great Lakes Science Center’s recent Aug. 20 fundraiser was out of this world.
“We were trying to get away from the typical sit everyone down for a few hours, with an auction,” says Great Lakes Science Center President and CEO Dr. Kirsten Ellenbogen.
For that, mission accomplished.
But beyond the methane, soap and water mixture that made fire-holding possible and Omniverse Media’s virtual SPACEWALK outside the International Space Station narrated by Terry Virts and Matthew Gast (the event was the simulation’s first, large-scale public testing), there is a bigger picture at work.
The event was as much a time to support the next 25 years as it was to celebrate the previous.
Great Lakes Science Center founding leaders, Dr. Jeanette Grasselli Brown, Margot J. Copeland, Richard W. Pogue and William R. Seelbach were this year’s Ion Award honorees.
As early as the 1980s and 1990s, these individuals worked to integrate the vision of a Science Center into Cleveland’s revitalization, Ellenbogen explains.
“These four leaders are not people who got something started and walked away,” Ellenbogen says. To them, “the Science Center was a passion project.”
For example, Margot J. Copeland was vice chair of Cleveland’s bicentennial commission when the Science Center opened in 1996 and worked to make it a part of the opening of North Coast Harbor’s gateway district.
The Science Center’s on-going partnership with Northeastern Ohio Science and Engineering Fair, which brings the International Science and Engineering Fair to Cleveland, was aided in 2003 by Dr. Brown.
Dr. Brown was also a “key part of the initiative … to bring together a public-private partnership around fresh water in the region. That strategic partnership with the science center went off to become its own nonprofit, now called the Cleveland Water Alliance,” says Ellenbogen.
Since taking her role in 2013, Dr. Ellenbogen has continued to anchor the Science Center into Cleveland communities. She is particularly proud of bringing annual programing and resources to students and families at Cleveland Neighborhood Resource & Recreation Centers, which began in July 2016.
Since September 2019, the Science Center has opened its space to roughly 100 Cleveland Metropolitan School District students desiring to compete in the FIRST Robotics Challenge. In the off-season, the students are staying connected. This summer, they worked with 3D printing materials to cast prosthetic limbs, which will be picked up by a non-profit International Outreach Group in October and matched with recipients.
“It reinforces for these students this is not just about a competition. The skills they are developing are life changing,” Ellenbogen says.
In addition, Great Lakes Science Center integrates education programs into CMSD. Last year, Cleveland Creates (sixth and seventh grade) and Cleveland Connection (eighth grade), benefited 3,800 students.
The Science Center’s 600 attendees raised a total of $350,000 toward these educational programs and others.
As for the next 25 years, new additions are in the works, to the Science Center itself as well as the Cleveland communities it serves.
On Oct. 27, Chester Avenue and 63rd Street will have a STEM-themed park at MidTown’s new MAGNET building. In late 2023, the Science Center’s previous, Cleveland Creates Zone exhibit will reopen as the Cleveland Creates Gallery, a deeper probe into emerging technology, involving a range of topics from cybersecurity to transportation.
The Science Center should not only be viewed as a museum, Ellenbogen says. “We have a role to play out in our community, in our neighborhoods.”
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