Celebrating 50 YEARS OF AMAZING DISCOVERIES May 1, 2016 — VLM 50th Anniversary • An advertising supplement to the Daily Press — 2 Somewhere past the red wolves, just beyond the bald eagles and beside the sea turtle, you will find it. The most wondrous and delicate discovery of all . in the eyes of those you came with. 757-595-1900 • thevlm.org Protect What’s Precious 3 — VLM 50th Anniversar Museum Founders Harry Wason, Mary Sherwood Holt and Lois Bowman – then and now y • An advertising supplement to the Daily Press — May 1, 2016 Celebrating BY PAGE HAYHURST, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR 50YEARS Th e Virginia Living Museum (VLM) is and families about the natural world. Our celebrating 50 years! Our anniversary plans mission of connecting people to nature to are worthy of this incredible milestone promote conservation is still relevant and – special programs, speakers, events and vital today. a new permanent outdoor exhibit. It all began with the planetarium opening in From Jack Hanna, Big Bugs and Dinos to November 1965. It was the era of the space- Garden Fest, Raptor Day and a Wildlife Art race and our state-of-the-art planetarium was Show, there are special programs and exhibits designed to encourage future astronauts and for everyone. Even our fundraisers are diverse inspire wonder about the night skies. Th at -from the Enchanted Otter 50th Anniversary also included showing the “Star of Wonder” Masque to the Golden Boot Scootin’ Party. – now a family tradition for many families who We invite you to join the celebration! have come back again and again to the Abbitt It’s hard to believe it was 50 years ago that Planetarium and to our free monthly star the community came together to create the observing at the Abbitt Observatory. Peninsula Junior Nature Museum, as the VLM Th e VLM was built, beloved and sustained by was named then. Led by museum founder the community over the past 50 years. Our Harry Wason, the Warwick Rotary Club and year-long celebration will give back to the the Junior League of Hampton Roads raised community through partnerships and special funds and partnered with the City of Newport programs and create new reasons to visit and News to create a museum to teach children join for adults, children and families. A COMMUNITY EFFORT FROM THE BEGINNING BY PHOEBE DOTY, VOLUNTEER the Virginia Living the museum built a 7,000-square-foot addition, Since 1966Museum has brought room for programs in physical and applied sciences. the cute, crawly, creepy and even Cretaceous to With the expansion came a new name, the Peninsula the Hampton Roads community. Th rough indoor Nature and Science Center, and accreditation from and outdoor exhibits, traveling attractions and the American Association of Museums (AAM). educational programs, the museum has spent the Bringing tech to kids, in 1981 the Junior League past 50 years teaching visitors about the beauty and of Hampton Roads pledged $25,000 to create a science of Virginia. Curiosity Corner with hands-on exhibits that Th e vision of a nature center in Newport News featured computers, a robot, a mock television began with Harry Wason, a leader in the Warwick studio and mechanical hands used in handling Rotary Club, who planted the seed and watched it radioactive and other materials. Another expansion grow into a legacy. project in 1981 added new classrooms, science In August 1963, Wason connected with Mary exhibit halls and a large lobby. Lou Hatten, the president of the Junior League LIVING MUSEUM of Hampton Roads, to talk about his interest in Attendance continued to climb, reaching the establishing a children’s nature museum. With the May 1, 2016 — VLM 50th Anniversary • An advertising supplement to the Daily Press — 4 limitations of the existing facility, and in 1983 the Junior League on board, Wason also sought support museum began a study of long-range plans. Approval and funding from the Warwick Rotary. Together was given to the concept of becoming a “living these local groups raised $150,000 to build a nature museum,” modeled after the renowned Arizona- center in Deer Park on 21 acres leased from the Sonoran Desert Museum in Tucson. Th is would City of Newport News. combine aspects of a science museum, botanical As a non-profi t, the museum relied heavily on the garden, zoological park, nature center, aquarium dedication of its volunteers from day one. Just like and planetarium. today, a team of volunteers supported every facet of the Peninsula Junior Nature Museum To accommodate the new concept, the museum and Planetarium. underwent a $3.2 million renovation in 1986 and reopened as the Virginia Living Museum in 1987. Walking into the small brown building in the woods that was the Junior Nature Museum By the mid-1980s, four Peninsula school systems and Planetarium in 1966, you’d be greeted by a were on contract for the museum to provide 60,000 taxidermied bald eagle in the museum’s lobby. students with curriculum-enhancing programs. In With staff ers and volunteers ready to highlight the the early 1990s the museum also launched a series key exhibits, you’d circle through the museum’s of in-school programs designed for kindergarten attractions, and maybe stop by the planetarium through fi fth graders. In 1991 alone, staff reached for a look into the heavens. out to more than 30,000 children in their schools. Visitors learned about Virginia wildlife through Th e museum provided a safe home for creatures who dioramas and interactions with living creatures. couldn’t survive in the wild, including bald eagles Exhibits devoted to plants and animals native to with wing injuries. In 1991 it opened an outdoor Virginia included taxidermied animals. Th e wetlands aviary, and otters delighted visitors when museum also housed an animal care facility for they gave birth to two pups. injured wildlife. A huge crowd-drawer were robotic dinosaur exhibits. Families and school tours lined up to go on the First displayed in 1989, these stomping, growling guided walks through the nature trails behind the dinosaurs brought Virginia’s ancient wildlife back museum, taking in Virginia’s wildlife in Deer Park. from the Jurassic. Animatronic dinosaur exhibits continue to be popular summer attractions. A shop facility, constructed by the Warwick Rotary “Dinosaurs are an integral part of our mission,” Club, was added in 1968 and later converted into an says Executive Director Page Hayhurst. “Over the aquarium exhibit in 1970. It included a 3,000 gallon past 27 years of dinosaur exhibits, the museum freshwater tank and a 700 gallon saltwater tank, has built expertise, collections and partnerships home to fi sh found throughout the state. to provide our community with a natural history With donations from local organizations, in 1976 resource like no other.” 5 — VLM 50th Anniversar Th e museum inaugurated its fi rst and Aquariums (AZA), becoming one of annual fund drive in 1992. In that only 12 institutions in the country to be fi rst year, community leaders, led by accredited by both AZA and AAM. David L. Peebles, chairman of Ferguson Over the past decade the museum has Enterprises, set out to raise $105,000. continued to add amenities including a THEIR PASSION Since its inception, the museum has been café, Conservation Garden, amphitheater, Protecting What’s Precious committed to preserving animal species, Children’s Garden and new exhibits, such y • An advertising supplement to the Daily Press — May 1, 2016 especially those that are endangered. In as the interactive Wild and Well where OUR PASSION 1998 it welcomed the black-footed ferret, young kids can role play being an animal the most endangered mammal in North keeper and a veterinarian. Helping the VLM Succeed America. It also started working with Th e museum has also faced some Monarch Watch, a program that tracks the challenges recently, both physically and millions of monarch butterfl ies that fl y fi nancially. from North America to Mexico each winter. When the museum’s construction note MAJOR EXPANSION was called as part of the nation’s fi nancial With attendance again reaching the crisis in 2008, the community rallied, building’s limits, in 1997 the museum raising $3 million to pay off the debt by announced plans to build a $21 million the Dec. 31, 2009, deadline. museum complex on the existing site. Th is In 2012, fl ood waters rushed through the expansion would multiply the museum to museum’s doors twice in four months, four times its size. causing more than $500,000 in damage. Local companies, including Ferguson Repairs were designed to minimize the Enterprises and Newport News eff ects of future fl oods and Newport News Congratulations to the Virginia Living Museum on Shipbuilding, donated more than Shipbuilding designed new fl ood gates to 50 incredible years.We’re proud to support the VLM‘s $600,000 to the cause. And the museum better protect the building. mission with branding and interactive marketing. hosted unique fundraising events to Despite fl oods and fi nancial woes, what support its annual funding. In October began as a little brown building in the 1999, Charlie and Mari Ann Banks woods has expanded to encompass 26 howellcreativegroup.com 757.253.1542 hosted “Boots for Bucks,” a fun hoe-down acres of scientifi c learning, interactions themed auction that off ered celebrities’ with animals and family fun. Th anks to boots for the highest bidder. 50 years of support from the community, Th e fi rst phase of the expansion, a its dedicated volunteers and its passionate Congratulations to the $400,000 Coastal Plain Aviary, opened employees, it continues to be a hub of in 2001.