On November 7th, Libby and I packed up our show-and-tell items and headed to OrcaFest in West Seattle. OrcaFest was a celebration of our resident orcas and was co-sponsored by The Whale Trail and Killer Whale Tales. The event was a great opportunity to share our orca knowledge with the community of West Seattle.
The T'ilibshudub dance group from the Dunwamish Tribe sang and danced; they even invited us to join in! Jeff Hogan from Killer Whale Tales educated young visitors through his unique storytelling ability, and The Whale Trail led us in a game of orca bingo. A wishing tree stood in the corner of the room and visitors filled the branches with wishes for our orcas.
Libby and I set up a table with information about PTMSC's Orca Project. Sometimes I forget how fortunate I am to work so closely with orca bones and teeth. Seeing the excitement on the faces of our visitors as they held a real orca tooth was a perfect reminder. We really do have a great thing going on here.
Heaher with a real orca tooth (left) and cast (right)
Photo by: James Castelline
Libby Palmer arranging the display table
Photo by Heather Jones
In other news....
One of my favorite things about working at PTMSC is bearing witness to all the creativity here! Occasionally I am able to take part in this creativity. This was the case most recently when volunteer, Roger Wilson, invited me to help him with a special project. Roger recognized the ever present need for hands-on children's activities in the Natural History Building and thought up the idea of creating an orca rocker. Roger took on the woodworking and I stepped in to help paint.
An enthusiastic visitor tries out our finished product....
What a great success!
Heather Jones
Orca Project Coordinator
Wow, from all the coverage I've seen about Orcafest I'm sorry I didn't head on down over the border to see it! http://www.keepwhaleswild.org/
ReplyDelete