PLANETARIUM WELCOMES 4,000,000TH VISITOR
by Carolyn M. Waterson
It is November 28, 1990. Children from several area schools file into the Planetarium Star Theater, whispering and wide-eyed. They are old enough to realize that bright lights, video cameras, and reporters are not part of the normal planetarium field trip, but their questions go unanswered as planetarium staff members escort them to their seats. Unseen by most of the crowd, Dr. Lee Shapiro hands one of the children an envelope, telling the child not to open it.
Finally, everyone is seated. Dr. Shapiro addresses the crowd.
"Now I handed one of you an envelope. Please bring that envelope up here now." A young boy slips out of the crowd and makes his way to where Dr. Shapiro is standing.
"What is your name?" Dr. Shapiro asks.
"Curtis."
"OK, Curtis, go ahead and open the envelope."
The third-grader tears open the envelope and brings forth a golden yellow ticket. On the ticket in large black letters are the words "This Ticket Presented to the FOUR MILLIONTH PERSON Admitted to Morehead Planetarium." And suddenly the Planetarium Star Theater is filled with applause and the popping of flash bulbs.
There are days when all of us on staff here are proud and glad to work at Morehead Planetarium. The day William Curtis Bullock walked through the door as our 4,000,000th visitor had to be one of those special days. And it meant even more to us because it happened during one of our school shows. Many people don't realize how involved we are in service to North Carolina's school children. Last year 53,714 students attended 702 school shows. When you include the shows for the general public, attendance at Morehead Planetarium has averaged just about one million people per decade through our forty-one years. We think Mr. Morehead would have been proud to see that his gift to the people of North Carolina has been put to such good use.
Speaking of gifts, among the prizes our 4,000,000th visitor received were a "Key to the Universe," a telescope, a Star Watcher's Decoder Kit, and a family membership to the Morehead Planetarium. His teacher, Rebecca Fleming, also received a book, a poster, and a video tape to take back to her class.
And since Curtis received a Planetarium Membership, that means he will also be receiving a copy of this SUNDIAL. So we would just like to take this opportunity to say to Curtis, "Congratulations, and welcome to the Morehead Planetarium family!" And to all our members, thank you for being a part of what makes Morehead Planetarium the special place that it is.
Unless otherwise noted, all text, art, code or other content ©1999-2006 Carolyn M. Wallace.
