(Okoboji)– A new $1.2 million exhibit at the Dickinson County Nature Center will be officially unveiled to the public at an event next month. Community Relations Coordinator Kiley Roth says construction on the “Pollinator Paradise” addition was completed this past March…
”This is a children’s museum, quality exhibits, all about pollinators. We want people to interact and be able to learn that one in three bites of food that we take is due to pollinators, that pollinator populations are dwindling due to a lack of habitat and food sources, and that really is up to us to bring them back. So we’re going to have a wide variety of interactive exhibits that are really great for all ages.”
Roth says the exhibits were assembled by a firm in Omaha. She adds the project was made possible entirely through donations…
”We’ve had so much community support. This is completely a donor funded project so from everybody who gave five dollars up to people who gave hundreds of thousands of dollars, we’re just so thankful for all of the community support for this project. We’re really, really excited to be able to introduce this to everybody.”
The exhibit will feature a life-size apple orchard, a food truck to create faux meals using pollinated ingredients, a “Magic Monarchs” exhibit depicting the monarch life cycle, a human-sized “honeycomb climber”, a “Build a Pollinator” display, and a digital game called “Save the Pollinators”.
The grand opening and ribbon cutting will be held at 10:00 am Saturday, November 16th at the Dickinson County Nature Center.
