Fall 2004 Issue
CDC Foundation Helps Outfit CDC’s New Visitor & Education Center
As CDC’s new scientific communications building nears completion, the CDC Foundation’s efforts to raise funds for its Visitor and Education Center are getting under way. The center will be the new “front door” for CDC – offering visitors a glimpse of the CDC experience. Although the facility itself is paid for with federal funds, the CDC Foundation is engaging private sector partners to support the center’s permanent and traveling exhibitions.
Planned exhibitions for the two-story 19,000-square-foot space include CDC from A to Z, where an alphabetical selection of words – Disease Detectives, Heart Health, Mosquito Bites – will help visitors explore public health from scientific, historical and cultural perspectives. Other exhibits include the Biosafety Level 4 Lab, which will simulate a CDC high-security containment lab. In The World Ahead: Imagine the Possibilities, people will learn more about the most pressing public health challenges and opportunities of the 21st century. Finally, in the classroom and theater, a wide range of educational programs are planned for middle and high school students.
“We envision our new center as a wonderful way to showcase the work of CDC, to get kids excited about careers in science and public health, and to help people gain a better understanding of what public health is and how it impacts all of our lives,” says Judy Gantt, director of the Global Health Odyssey, CDC’s current museum.
CDC’s Visitor and Education Center is slated to open in 2006. For more information on how to support the center’s permanent and traveling exhibition materials, please call Chloe Tonney at 404-653-0790. Individual and corporate sponsorships are invited.