LOCAL ICON STUFFEE ARRIVES HOME AT DA VINCI SCIENCE CENTER
FAST FACTS
- A nine-foot-tall figure styled as a little boy, Stuffee has a zipper on
his chest and abdomen and a 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.
- Stuffee will reside
in the Da Vinci Science Center’s preschool exhibit area, the Little Learner’s
Lab.
RELEASE
DATE
July 9, 2009
Stuffee – the blue-haired ambassador of health who has become a local icon – emerged from a hydrogen demonstration bus Thursday before entering his new home at the Da Vinci Science Center.
The nine-foot-tall figure styled as a little boy had called the Weller Health Education Center in Easton home since 2000. Stuffee features a zipper on his chest and abdomen and a battery-powered heartbeat, allowing guests to take his pulse and hold soft reproductions of his heart, lungs, intestines, stomach, and other organs.
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.
This particular Stuffee needed a new home because the Weller Center ended its exhibit floor programming in 2008 to concentrate on outreach efforts. Stuffee will now reside in the Da Vinci Science Center’s preschool exhibit area, the Little Learner’s Lab.
Troy A. Thrash, executive director and chief executive officer of the Da Vinci Science Center, and Melissa Lee, president and CEO of the Weller Center, signed “adoption papers” before an enthusiastic crowd of boys and girls, making Stuffee’s move official.
The hydrogen bus from which Stuffee emerged serves the Air Products campus daily, was made possible by Federal Transit Administration funding secured by the Da Vinci Science Center.
The Da Vinci Science Center also announced today that the Weller Health Education Center will present its Health Adventure programs at the Da Vinci Science Center on Thursdays as part of the science center’s 2009 Summer Series.
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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