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The Museum has hosted birthday parties<\/strong><\/a> for over 20 years, providing an opportunity for friends and family to gather and make memories\u00a0celebrating\u00a0a beloved child\u2019s birthday\u00a0while also\u00a0learning about the natural world. When, due to the pandemic, the\u00a0Museum had to close and prohibit all in-person programming, we had to cancel 30 birthday parties. We knew that\u00a0all of\u00a0these children were likely disappointed by not being able to celebrate with their friends, so the first thing the\u00a0Birthday Party\u00a0team\u00a0did was create short, personalized birthday videos for each child.<\/p>\n Next,\u00a0we joined\u00a0our colleagues in turning one of our classrooms into a virtual studio. This was no easy task, but the effort was well worth it. This new studio space\u00a0has\u00a0given Museum\u00a0educators the opportunity to explore fun new technology, involve\u00a0live\u00a0animal ambassadors and most importantly, reconnect with our guests.<\/p>\n Given the possibilities of a virtual\u00a0studio, the Birthday Party team was eager to explore the option of\u00a0virtual birthday parties.\u00a0In the\u00a0early days\u00a0of the pandemic,\u00a0virtual birthday parties were almost unheard of. Without\u00a0a template to pull from, the program had to be\u00a0developed\u00a0from scratch. The team worked hard, thought\u00a0creatively and\u00a0imagined\u00a0how to translate the fun and celebration of an in-person\u00a0birthday party\u00a0to\u00a0a\u00a0fully\u00a0virtual platform.<\/p>\n Collaborating with colleagues\u00a0across the Museum, we developed\u00a0three new virtual birthday party programs:\u00a0\u201cReptiles\u00a0Rock!,\u201d\u00a0\u201cDinosaur Discovery,\u201d and\u00a0\u201cBedazzled: Dragons and Gemstones.\u201d Party guests sent in rave reviews and\u00a0Virtual Birthday Parties\u00a0quickly became a staff favorite to teach. How can you not have fun\u00a0during\u00a0a dinosaur dance party?<\/p>\n One of the most meaningful benefits of these virtual parties was unexpected. We witnessed the reunion of friends who had not seen each other for months, grandchildren laughing with their grandparents in other states, and families celebrating together from all over the world. We\u2019ve had guests join our virtual parties from across the country and as far away as South Africa and Norway \u2014 we\u2019ve even had a family all singing together in Greek!<\/p>\n Through\u00a0the medium of an online celebration, the Museum helped connect friends and families with each other, and with nature, when those connections were needed the most. And we were so honored to be a part of\u00a0it. Whether virtual or in-person, our goal is to connect people across the state and the globe to the natural world\u00a0while providing a positive, engaging experience for all.<\/p>\n Book your Virtual Birthday Party today!<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n For more information about our upcoming activities, seasonal news and ground-breaking research, follow @NaturalSciences on Instagram<\/a>, Twitter<\/a> and Facebook<\/a>.\u00a0Join the conversation with #visitNCMNS. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":62946,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/62940"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/62940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Museum](\"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Trex_program1_800.jpg\")
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