By Sara Thompson
Special to the Enterprise
Big Day of Giving is on Thursday, May 5th and Explorit needs your help. Every year, non-profits rely on generous donations to help them make ends meet, and Explorit is no exception. Our mission is to ignite and foster curiosity about science and nature through inquiry and discovery. We provide informal, hands-on science education to elementary schools, as well as camps, public exhibits, and more!
To keep up with science standards, our school programs must continually be updated, and some items need to be replaced due to use. To help keep costs affordable for our schools we rely on donations for these upgrades and replacements. Explorit has four outreach programs that travel out to area schools, as well as six school programs at our site. Each of these programs requires nearly $500 each for upkeep each year. This cost includes replacement materials, safe cleaning and sanitizing solutions, and making signs and instructions for students to follow. Maintenance for our vehicles is also needed for providing travel programs to our students.
Explorit changes its main exhibit each year for schools and the public to enjoy. Most of the costs for building a new exhibit is covered by grants and admissions, but donations can help make ends meet. Explorit also provides rotating crafts and activities each weekend. Supply costs as well as staff time for planning may be less than $50 per week, but annually is over $2000 in just weekend activities for our public visitors!
Explorit has a variety of live invertebrates, fish, and reptiles we use if our education programs and public viewing. Our staff and public love our animals and want the best for them, however animal care costs can add up quickly. To provide food for all our animals, vet appointments for our reptiles, and other care costs such as heat lamps and appropriate bedding can cost over $1000 a year.
Founded in 1982, Explorit has provided science education to our community for 40 years! Explorit is very fortunate to have been able to stay afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic due to our hard-working staff and generous donations from our community. As we continue to do more educational programming and strive to stay affordable for our schools and public visitors we continue to rely on donations from our community, with Big Day of Giving being one of our most important giving days. Explorit hopes to raise $5000 or more during Big Day of Giving, with an annual goal of raising $40,000 to celebrate 40 years of providing science education to our community!
Exploit's coming events:
• Due to overwhelming demand, Explorit has opened two new Summer Science Camp sessions for our K-2 grades from 1-4pm, available July 11-15 and July 18-22. All camps run from Monday-Friday and will have both indoor and outdoor components. Price is $175 Members/$200 Non-Members. Register for summer camp at https://www.explorit.org/camps.
• Explorit is open to the public on Fridays from 1-4pm, Saturdays and Sundays from 10am-2pm. Admission is $5 per person. Explorit Members, ASTC, and those age 2 and under free. Explorit strongly encourages all guests to wear a mask while indoors.
• A Membership to Explorit grants the recipient free visits to Explorit’s regular public hours, discounts on events, summer camps and workshops, and gives you ASTC benefits to visit other museums throughout the world. To purchase or for more information visit https://www.explorit.org/membership or call Explorit at 530-756-0191.