Join the celebration Saturday as Whirligig Park joins NC Science Trail

Earlier this summer, the N.C. Science Trail announced that the Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park had become the Trail’s 100th partner site. On Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon, the Science Trail’s Festival of Science during the last Wilson Farmers and Artisans Market of the season.

This free event for all ages features hands-on science activities from the following partners: Aurora Fossil Museum (Aurora), Cape Fear Botanical Garden (Fayetteville), Imagination Station (Wilson), Imperial Centre for Arts & Sciences (Rocky Mount), Kidzu Children’s Museum (Chapel Hill), Morehead Planetarium (Chapel Hill), N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences (Greenville), Robeson Planetarium & Science Center (Rocky Mount), Tar River Astronomy Club (Rocky Mount), UNC Society of Physics Students (Chapel Hill), Wilson County Schools STEM (Wilson), Seeds of Hope (Wilson), N.C. Science Trail, N.C. Space Grant and N.C. State Parks.

Food trucks and farmers market vendors will be on-site. Food trucks will include the Biscuit Bus, On the Road Cafe, Scoop Truck, Bubble Duck Tea and DJ Smashers.

The N.C. Science Trail launched in April 2023 with the goal of bringing on partners in all 100 North Carolina counties to provide educational science activities both indoors and out. It is funded by the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources and the N.C. Science Network. The trail features sites that include state parks, aquariums, gardens, nature centers, science museums and the North Carolina Zoo. The Trail’s website, social media and email newsletter connect families, individuals and science lovers to science-based activities across the state.

“The N.C. Science Trail is such an amazing partner because it provides not only information about partner sites, but it also helps connect curious minds with scientific events and programs,” said Roy Palmer, director of the Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park and Museum. “It is something that I feel every parent should check out, as it’s such a wonderful resource for exposing us all to the wonder of the natural world.”

Imagination Station was the fifth organization to join the N.C. Science Trail and is playing a special part in Saturday’s “Festival of Science” event celebrating the Whirligig Park’s addition to the trail.

“With their partnership with the N.C. Science Trail, Imagination Station is recreating a Rube Goldberg machine to present a ceremonial 100th partner banner,” said Stefanie Keen, marketing chair of the Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park and Museum board. “We are particularly excited because when the Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park had its grand park opening in 2017, Imagination Station created a Rube Goldberg machine to cut the ribbon. This is not the same machine, but a similar concept of various parts put together to make a chain reaction which will result in a 100th partner of the N.C. Science Trail banner ribbon-cutting.”

Representatives from state and local government will join event organizers for the ribbon cutting at 10 a.m.

“When the team at the N.C. Science Trail proposed we (the Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park) join this event, we were ecstatic because we would be in the company of organizations like Imagination Station and the N.C. State Park System,” Keen said. “This trail, like the others developed by the Year of the Trail initiative, is built on connecting the amazing resources that our state has.”

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