DA VINCI SCIENCE CENTER TO ADOPT LOCAL ICON STUFFEE THURSDAY MORNING
FAST FACTS
-
A nine-foot-tall doll styled as a little boy, Stuffee has a zipper down the
middle of his chest and abdomen and battery-powered heartbeat, allowing guests
to take his pulse and hold soft reproductions of his organs.
- The iconic blue-haired ambassador of health called the Weller Health Education
Center home for nine years, but needed a new home because the Weller Center
ended exhibit floor programming to concentrate on outreach to the schools
in 2008.
- With an assist from Air Products, Stuffee will arrive at the Da Vinci Science
Center from Easton Thursday at 11:30 a.m. aboard a hydrogen demonstration
bus.
- Officials from Da Vinci Science Center and the Weller Center will sign "adoption
papers" and cake will be served at a Welcome Home Stuffee Ceremony.
- Stuffee was created by a woman who died in 1997 from a brain tumor. A portion
of Stuffee's proceeds have benefited her foundation's health and wellness
programs.
July 6, 2009
Stuffee - the iconic blue-haired ambassador of health who called the Weller Health Education Center home for nine years - will be adopted by the Da Vinci Science Center on Thursday following a renewing journey along a hydrogen highway.
With an assist from Air Products, Stuffee will arrive at the Da Vinci Science Center from Easton Thursday at 11:30 a.m. aboard a hydrogen demonstration bus. The hydrogen bus, which serves the Air Products campus daily, was made possible by Federal Transit Administration funding secured by the Da Vinci Science Center.
A Welcome Home Stuffee Ceremony will follow, including cake for hundreds of children in attendance and an adoption ceremony. Troy A. Thrash, the Da Vinci Science Center's executive director and chief executive officer, and Melissa Lee, president and CEO of the Weller Center, will sign "adoption papers" for the nine-foot-tall doll styled as a little boy.
"We are thrilled to welcome Stuffee to the Da Vinci Science Center family," Thrash said. "Our permanent adoption of him and the use of hydrogen fuels to bring him home represent renewal in two powerful ways. Stuffee will have a renewed life and purpose with our guests, and the hydrogen bus symbolizes the region's future with renewable energy sources."
Stuffee was a long-time favorite on the Weller's Center's exhibit floor. Stuffee has a zipper down the middle of his chest and abdomen and battery-powered heartbeat, allowing guests to take his pulse and hold soft reproductions of his heart, lungs, intestines, stomach, and other organs. When the Weller Center ended its exhibit floor programming in 2008 to concentrate on outreach efforts, the search for Stuffee's new home began.
Stuffee was created for the Pittsburgh Children's Museum by Jo Winger in 1983. Winger died from a brain tumor in Jan. 1997 at the age of 41, leaving behind a husband and three young children. A portion of Stuffee proceeds have benefited the Jo Winger Foundation's health and wellness programs. Stuffee dolls also are used by the Gift of Life Donor Program, Philadelphia, the Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts in Harrisburg, the New York Hall of Science, and other organizations to educate kids about the body and organ donation.
ABOUT THE WELLER HEALTH
EDUCATION CENTER
The mission of the Weller Health Education Center is to measurably improve
children's lives by giving students the tools they need to make informed and
healthy life choices. Each year the Center partners with more than 500 schools
to supplement and enhance the teaching of health, character education and
life science for students grades K through 12. In the fall of 2008, the Weller
Health Education Center began providing its award-winning health education
programs exclusively in schools and other learning centers throughout the
organization's 39-county service area. The Weller Health Education Center
was the first not-for-profit health promotion, disease prevention education
facility of its kind in Pennsylvania. Serving more than 1.3 million children
since its inception in 1982, the Weller Center remains the only such center
in our 39-county service area and one of just 34 health education centers
across the nation.
ABOUT DA VINCI SCIENCE
CENTER
The Da Vinci Science Center is an independent nonprofit organization that
promotes hands-on science learning through inquiry, highlights vibrant and
important career opportunities in science available to every young person,
and encourages all people to embrace curiosity, creativity, and imagination.
The Center delivered upon its mission in 2008 to approximately 75,000 people
through its dynamic exhibit floor, which features more than 200 hands-on exhibits;
its professional development programs for teachers, including its signature
Da Vinci Teacher Leader Institute for elementary teachers; its public programming;
and its outreach programs, including its Visiting Scientist Lab (VSL) programs
and After-School Science Lab (ASL) programs. The Da Vinci Science Center stresses
the inquiry method. Utilized by scientists and recognized as the most effective
way to learn, the inquiry method encourages questioning, experimenting actively,
observing, communicating results, and connecting all knowledge. Additional
information can be found on the web at www.davinci-center.org.
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