gettin' 'er done on a labor day monday

 

 

SERMACS 2019 Report on Public Outreach Event for National Chemistry Week  

Chair: Faustina L. Smith

Date: Sunday, October 20, 2019

 

SERMACS in Savannah coincided with the start of National Chemistry Week, providing an opportunity to bring a positive science experience to the public eye. 

The planning committee opted for a Sunday afternoon event on River Street, near the meeting site, to allow all present to partake of the event.

Site permit

Permissionfor the use of Morrell Park for the event was obtained in July 2019, with the official Letter of Permit granted on August 22, 2019, from the City of Savannah’s Office of Special Events, Film And Tourism; the Letter of Permit required $100 as the fee (for nonprofits), as well as a refundable Maintenance Deposit (which was returned in full at the event’s end). The fee covered the three-hour use of the park, allowing time for set-up and clean-up to either side of the two-hour event. The ACS Office of the Treasurer provided the necessary Certificate of Insurance for the public outreach event; that certificate was free. The required Security for the two-hourevent was provided by two officers from SCMPD; the cost was two hours of holiday pay for each.

 

Event Volunteers

This aspect was the most daunting. Even though the student leaders of the local YCC and SA-ACS volunteered during the planning phase, schedules changed and personnel were scarce as the event neared. Fortunately, that problem was resolved two-weeks' out with an email from Will Lynch and another from Jim LoBue, as well as volunteers from the nearby SERMACS site.

Demonstration tables were supplied by Will Lynch and Todd Hizer.

Mybrother, Harvey Smith, transported me with the fourteen waterproofedcontainers of event materials to the site on the event day.

(Waterproofing was needed as Savannah had a full day of rain just prior to the event.)

 

Event Activities

After measurements at Morrell Park, I determined a design utilizing sixstations, with participants walking from one to the other, with souvenirs to be collected. Four demonstrations were eventually selected for the event with the help of Patti Galvin and DavidHorwitz, both Program Managers of the ACS Office of Science Outreach. All materials for the science demonstrations were supplied by them.

Three of the four demonstrations (copper etching, UV-bead wristband, and self-inflating balloon) allowed participants to make their own take-away items - which promoted much enthusiasm. The take-away at the fourth demonstration was an issue of "Saving Savannah's Water", an activity book provided by the City of Savannah's Public Works & Water Resources office.

Each participant also received a collection bag and pencils with the NCW logo, Millie Mole stickers, and the "Marvelous Metals" issue of "Celebrating Chemistry", all supplied from ACS by the our NCW coordinator, Cathy MacGowan.

For a final take-away, each participant received a pre-folded ChemCatcherriddle game (which proved very popular with the undergraduates at SERMACS that evening). I had printed the game from the ACS website, then made copies on two colors (blue and yellow) of paper.

Patti Galvan trained the sixteen volunteers while the stations were assembled.

 

Event promotion 

Freeadvertising of the event was obtained with the two localentertainment newspapers, DO Savannah and Connect Savannah. A flyer promoting the Public Outreach event was designed by myself and Chelsea Miller of YCC, with ACS logo added by David Horwitz. The flyer was then shared on social media sites and via email to interested parties for two weeks prior to the event. In addition, abanner for the NCW Public Outreach event was onsite at SERMACS.

 

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I have submitted the above, minus the links to my post entries and the photograph taken by David Horwitz of the American Chemical Society, to the google-docs where the final report for all SERMACS activities is being assembled.

It's taken me part of several days to amass all the information for that summary - amazing.

I was asked to write a brief report which might serve useful to others planning a similar event in the future...

so, that's what I've done.

If I were to include my post entries, that would prove even more helpful to another, as this had so many moving parts.

I'm glad I had the experience...

as well as the other experiences sharing the leftover gifts and providing demonstrations at BYOP parties with Dawn and with Robin...

and the joy of giving demonstrations to teacher friends and to my nephew Kobe and my niece Ally for their classmates...

but I certainly understand why no one else had their hand up to volunteer to take it on.

The chair went empty for six months before I sat down in it.

I'm glad I was already retired and had the time available.

Right place, right time.