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Around Town
June 16, 2021 • Community News – St. Louis County • www.mycnews.com
‘CATCH’ from cover – 25 years plus, typically. Bats find their way into people’s homes, and though we need bats – they are an important part of our ecosystem – we just cannot live with them in the same structure. There is a fungus that grows in their fecal matter called histoplasmosis – that fungus is bad on human lungs. We will get asthma, bronchitis – all kinds of respiratory problems.” Beran stated that Raptor Rescue was solely funded initially by Wildlife Command Center’s participation in events such as Comic Con and Renaissance Fair where the center solicits donations. COVID-19 prevented the organization from gathering donations last year. Recently, the center began selling its own coffee to fund the nonprofit (visit https://buywcc.com for details on how to support). The Wildlife Command Center which rescues people from wild animals and pests, remedies invasive birds for commercial businesses, and trains and provides animals for commercial, movie, and party needs, doubles in size yearly according to Beran since moving its hub to St. Louis in 2014. Beran founded Wildlife in Shreveport, Louisiana in 2010. “In 2014 we decided that we needed a bigger city that
was somewhere in the Midwest so that we could operate the way I had envisioned (running) Wildlife Command Center,” he stated. Beran who has center locations in five other states also shared that he has been everywhere and “personally” loves St. Louis. “I was in the navy for a number of years – up and down the east coast. I have traveled and I just personally love St. Louis.” Finders of Wildlife’s treasure boxes during the eight-week contest will not only retain $100 associated with each box but will also receive resource information for the Center in the boxes. “If no one finds 10 of the 12 treasures,” Beran stated of the $10,000 grand prize winner, “whoever finds the most boxes will be eligible for a consolation prize drawing.” Beran shared that a consolation prize drawing for such a participant will consist of the winner gaining additional money based on the amount of their previous winnings multiplied by a number the participant will choose from a drawing. In the case of a tie, Beran stated the game rules for individual participants/ teams in locating boxes will be used to determine a primary winner based on receipt of timestamped videos and pictures (watch a brief detailed video of the contest rules at https://buywcc.com/contest/). Teams apply to those groups of six who registered on the contest site before May 16, 2021. Individuals are not
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required to register for participation at any time. Between July 1 and August 31, participants will have access to 12 different YouTube clue videos to assist in locating the 12 treasure boxes. To learn more about Wildlife Command Center and its mission visit https://wildlifecommandcenter. com. To find out more about Michael Beran as an actor visit IMDB.me/MichaelBeran.
By Tasmyn Scarl Front
Investing in our future explorers So many noteworthy space events have happened recently: The Ingenuity helicopter became the first aircraft to fly on another planet. Apollo 11 Astronaut Michael Collins died at the age of 90. China successfully launched the first module of a new space station. SpaceX sent four astronauts to space and returned them safely to Earth. But what is the significance of exploring other worlds for those of us just trying to get out of our house for the first time in a year? After a year of isolation, it is worth pausing to appreciate the unifying power of gazing into the night sky. Every person, of every color, every religion, every income level, every continent, who has ever gazed up at the sky, has looked up at the same moon. Now, it is time to make space exploration as universal as space admiration has always been. To be successful at getting humans to Mars, we will need the combined efforts of people across the globe, and that includes people that are currently children here in St. Louis. All children need to be able to envision themselves as problem-solvers that could help design, build, test, launch, or even pilot the spacecraft that will take humans to Mars. But how do we inspire them to have such big dreams? At the Challenger Learning Center, we see that the most pow-
erful tool we have for sparking big dreams for the future is giving students a preview of what that future could look like. When children take on the roles of NASA astronauts, engineers, and scientists and take part in an exciting space mission, it not only increases their awareness of these jobs, it increases their confidence in their ability to one day pursue these career paths. Of course, if we learned anything this past year, it’s that we need scientifically-minded problem-solvers focused on the challenges here on Earth, too: We’ve relied on scientists developing tests and vaccines, engineers and manufacturers coordinating to make mass quantities of them, logistics specialists getting supplies where they need to go, and health-care workers getting treatment to the public. Our collective successes and failures have also depended on how able and willing journalists, politicians, and the general public are to engage with science. The pandemic has shown us that we need to teach our future generation of decision-makers how to question, research, and evaluate claims they hear -- regardless of the career path they choose. I am optimistic about this future, because I see first-hand how organizations in our community are investing to make this vision a reality: Boeing supports us in providing space missions and engineering
workshops. Emerson helps us to provide teachers with the training and resources they need to facilitate after-school STEM clubs for their students. And of course, schools and other nonprofit organizations coordinate to bring these opportunities to the students they serve day in and day out. Together, we can work to ensure by the time today’s students are grown, they are ready to face tomorrow’s challenges -- from making wise decisions for their families, to keeping us safe from future threats, to exploring the wonders of outer space. Tasmyn Scarl Front is the Executive Director of the Challenger Learning Center-St. Louis and has over 25 years of experience in informal science education. Tasmyn serves on the board of directors for New City School, Challenger Center for Space Science Education, and the Jewish Community Relations Council, and as a steering committee member of the St. Louis STEM Ecosystem. She is a marathon runner and leads a local running group, the Missouri Running Club. Tasmyn graduated from the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana with a degree in Industrial Design. The opinions expressed in this column are the columnist’s alone and do not reflect the opinion of the owners or staff of Community News.
