Noon Year's Eve 2009

Collette

By Collette on 13-Jan-10 15:51

What did you do for New Year's Eve? Were you one of over 700 people that came to Noon Year's Eve at the Saskatchewan Science Centre? Hope so! We had a lot of fun!

We had all sorts of things happening that day. Outside we had sleigh rides happening for part of the afternoon. And, even though it was super duper cold, some people did brave the cold to have a ride! I, however, did not. It means I didn't get any pictures of it either! Sorry folks. It was cold! I could have tried to get a photo from inside our lobby, but instead I got a photo of the people lined up.

Pretty busy! We tried to keep people warm and happy while they waited by handing out hot chocolate and cookies.

We also have a really great plan for next year to get that line moving faster, so if you were one of the ones who had to wait a bit -- we'll do better next year! As it turns out we had 718 people visit us that day, and we'd only planned for 450. Huge difference! I think things went awesomely well, and even having almost twice the crowd we expected didn't affect much. But, it did affect the line more than we'd liked -- you guys all showed up at the same time! But, no worries. We'll fix that for next year.

One guy kept busy all day was Contact Juggler Brett. He took maybe two breaks all day, and was otherwise on the go teaching people how to contact juggle.

Another extra that day was a draw for some amazing prizes. Thanks so much to:

CTV Regina: donated a Hockey Canada jersey and a Pepsi toque
RCMP Heritage Centre: donated two free tickets to visit them
Chili's Bar & Grill Regina: donated four $20 gift certificates
Z99: donated four coffee mugs and four mouse pads

Plus we also had one of our comfy vests in there.

The craft table was busy all day with kids making party hats and holiday crackers. Our Director of Operations, Vandana, was right in there helping things so smoothly. It was such a busy day that those of us that generally work in the offices got to help out! It was really fun to get out and interact with people. We don't always do that enough.

Speaking of office staff helping out, here is John, our Director of Programming and Exhbits, helping Outreach Explorer Ashley make cotton candy! He called himself Carnie John. I don't know if I'm allowed to put that on the blog so just don't tell him, okay? He was really hilarious about the whole thing!

I loved that they were making the cotton candy out in the open for everyone to see. I am sure they got lots of questions about how things work. I learned that there is only about 1 tablespoon of sugar in each bag! Seems like so much more, hey?

These little cuties sure loved their cotton candy.

Hm, there was so much going on. We had Wild Ocean playing at the Kramer IMAX Theatre all day. That was a big hit! We also had wall climbing as well. Here you can see some legs dangling up in the top corner of the picture. I like how people get to watch!

Our pal Discovery Jones came by for a short visit too, and was immediately mobbed by little ones wanting hugs. Here he is from above giving a wave.

Did you know that Discovery Jones is on Facebook? You can be his friend!

We had face painting too, thanks to some lovely volunteers! The kids loved it.

Did I tell you it was busy? Wow, check out the exhibit floor:

You can see the GyroGym going on in the top left corner too. So much to do!

At the end of the day, Science Exporer Karissa did an absolutely fantastic job of presenting the Big Bang Stage Show. It's performed once a year -- only at this event -- and if you like smoke, fire, and loud noises then it's a must-see.