TOTE Family Fun Fest returns to museum grounds

Submitted by Kerynn Fisher
Phone: (907) 474-6941
06/07/07

The University of Alaska Museum of the North’s annual TOTE Family Fun Fest returns for its ninth year this Sunday from noon to 4 p.m., with hands-on activities for kids of all ages under the big top tent on the museum’s east lawn. The popular event returns to the museum grounds this year for the first time since 2002, when construction began on the museum’s new wing.

Kids will enjoy navigating a salmon migration obstacle course, making their own beadwork, building plant presses, dissecting owl pellets, creating their own museum art, learning Eskimo dances with the Pavva Inupiaq dancers and other activities related to the museum’s exhibits and research collections. Refreshments will be available from UAF’s Dining Services and Aunt Alice’s Old Time Kettle Corn. UAF’s bear mascot will work the crowds at the event.

The museum’s TOTE Family Fun Fest started in 1999 as a fundraiser for the museum’s expansion and has grown in popularity every year, drawing close to 1,000 children and parents to enjoy a fun-filled day of museum activities. Totem Ocean Trailer Express has served as the lead sponsor of the event since 2000. Admission is free for children 6 and under, $3 for youth 7-17 and $5 for adults, a discount from the museum’s regular admission rates. Parking is available in the museum’s RV lot, located to the east of the big top tent. Additional parking is available in UAF’s Natural Sciences Building parking lot.

CONTACT: Kerynn Fisher, communications coordinator, University of Alaska Museum of the North, at (907) 474-6941 or (907) 378-2559.