A True Community Celebration

Just in case you forgot, this February we had a lot of snow. Like 3-4 feet of snow.

And also just in case you forgot, our "Grand Opening" was postponed and then basically canceled because of said snow. As someone who almost never cancels anything, this was especially difficult for me.

On February 12 as I sat with two of my board members talking about the upcoming dilemma of an opening on February 14 with 4 feet of snow on the ground and no parking outside the museum, we came up with the idea of an opening in the spring.

I tagged it a "Community Celebration" of Snapshots in Time. I wasn't sure just what I meant by a "Community Celebration", but I knew that I wanted it to be festive. I wanted people to have a reason to come see an exhibit that had already been open for 2 months.

And most importantly, I hoped that I'd get some people involved who helped put together the exhibit. I wanted to keep the community groups engaged in the LHS and this seemed like a perfect opportunity.

So this Sunday, our twice snowed out exhibit opening took place with the threat of a lot of rain. But guess what?! Mother nature decided we had had enough bad weather and she held out for the entire length of the Community Celebration.

Instead we had a true community celebration.

We had a museum filled with music provided by the Laurel School of Music.












We had a basement filled with games provided by Oseh Shalom, one of our partners in developing the exhibit.










We had visitors engaged in "Community Conversations" throughout the afternoon.















We had visitors from the Islamic Community Center of Laurel, another of our partners in developing the exhibit.











We had families enjoying themselves in the galleries.



















In the end we had 85 people join us for a fun and festive Community Celebration. Not bad for an exhibit that had already been open a couple of months.

We're thinking this isn't such a bad idea after all. We think it might be worth repeating.

So next year, even if it doesn't snow 4 feet in February, look out for a Community Celebration in the Spring

And it will be the Museum's 15th Anniversary and we think that's definitely worth a celebration!