GALLERY: Mid-America's holiday season off to strong start

Tee Wrexx, a walk-around dinosaur at Mid-America Science Museum, greets two young visitors to the museum Friday on the opening night of Dino-Lites. - Photo by Tanner Newton of The Sentinel-Record
Tee Wrexx, a walk-around dinosaur at Mid-America Science Museum, greets two young visitors to the museum Friday on the opening night of Dino-Lites. - Photo by Tanner Newton of The Sentinel-Record

COVID-19 may have altered its annual festivities, but Mid-America Science Museum continued its holiday celebrations this weekend with Dino-Lites.

The museum's annual holiday fundraiser, Taste of the Holidays, was canceled this year due to the pandemic, but in its place, the museum held "Hello Taste," a virtual cooking class with chef Ozzie Oseguera from Bleu Monkey Grill. The museum also held an online auction to raise funds.

"Hello Taste" was held on Nov. 19, and the auction ended on Wednesday. Donna Jared, the museum's director of development, called the fundraiser a success.

"It was just a really fun event," Jared said, noting that around 40 people participated in the cooking class.

Oseguera showed the participants how to cook Bleu Monkey Shrimp. Since this was the first time they have held a virtual cooking course, "we were intentionally keeping it a small initial group," Jared said, noting they "wanted to do it right."

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"It was fun. It was really great to see the chef preparing the meal, seeing how he did it. (He) made it seem easy, like something I could do at home," she said.

As of Friday, Diane LaFollette, the museum's executive director, said it's not known exactly how much money was raised, but she estimated that between the two events, they raised around 40% of what Taste of the Holidays usually brings in.

LaFollette said this met their goal, but stressed the money wasn't the only reason for the events.

"We were using it for several different reasons, to raise money, and to keep Mid-America in the public eye," she said.

LaFollette said she also enjoyed the virtual cooking class. "It was a lot of fun; we were watching everybody on Zoom, it looked like they all had a good time," she said, noting the auction reached a large number of people. She said winning bids were submitted by people as far away as Hawaii and New York.

The auction attracted people from all over the country, LaFollette said, which helped spread the museum's brand awareness.

Another part of the museum's holiday season is Dino-Lites, which opened for its third season on Friday.

As with previous Dino-Lites, the event started with words from LaFollette and Mayor Pat McCabe, who was the one who originally pitched the idea to the museum.

McCabe got to select one of the 13 dinosaur displays to be the Mayor's Choice Award winner. Citing the "penetrating question" that it asks, McCabe awarded the trophy to the Garland County Library for their display of Brachiosaurs.

The question was, "How would dinosaurs wear pants?"

The mayor was also there to officially light the dinosaurs and invited Ellison Richard, a child from Louisiana, to flip the switch for him. When he learned that Richard was from out of state, McCabe said, "I always like to have visitors who're not from here."

McCabe praised all the dinosaur displays, noting he particularly liked the ones decorated by UPS and Piney Fire Department.

LaFollette said attendance for the opening day of Dino-Lites was strong, noting that half an hour prior to the lighting of the dinosaurs, they had 350 people in the museum but it wasn't known if all of them walked through the Oaklawn Foundation DinoTrek.

Due to the pandemic, the DinoTrek was spaced out, with each family having to wait for their turn to go see the dinosaurs.

Upcoming events the museum has planned include an ugly sweater night on Dec. 5, holiday face mask night on Dec. 12, and on Dec. 19, the winners of People's Choice and Sponsor's Choice will be announced. Dino-Lites closes on Dec. 26.

Mayor Pat McCabe announces that the Garland County Library's dinosaur won the Mayor's Choice Award. Diane LaFollette, museum executive director, holds their trophy. - Photo by Tanner Newton of The Sentinel-Record
Mayor Pat McCabe announces that the Garland County Library's dinosaur won the Mayor's Choice Award. Diane LaFollette, museum executive director, holds their trophy. - Photo by Tanner Newton of The Sentinel-Record

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