Da Vinci Science Center to Adopt Stuffee

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7/7/2009
Stuffee – the iconic blue-haired ambassador of health who called the Weller Health Education Center home for nine years – will be adopted by the Da Vinci Science Center Thursday, July 9, 2009 following a renewing journey along a hydrogen highway.
 
With an assist from Air Products, Stuffee will arrive at the Da Vinci Science Center from Easton Thursday at 11:30 a.m. aboard a hydrogen demonstration bus. The hydrogen bus, which serves the Air Products campus daily, was made possible by Federal Transit Administration funding secured by the Da Vinci Science Center.

A Welcome Home Stuffee Ceremony will follow, including cake for hundreds of children in attendance and an adoption ceremony. Troy A. Thrash, the Da Vinci Science Center’s executive director and chief executive officer, and Melissa Lee, president and CEO of the Weller Center, will sign “adoption papers” for the nine-foot-tall doll styled as a little boy.

“We are thrilled to welcome Stuffee to the Da Vinci Science Center family,” Thrash said. “Our permanent adoption of him and the use of hydrogen fuels to bring him home represent renewal in two powerful ways. Stuffee will have a renewed life and purpose with our guests, and the hydrogen bus symbolizes the region’s future with renewable energy sources.”

Stuffee was a long-time favorite on the Weller’s Center’s exhibit floor. Stuffee has a zipper down the middle of his chest and abdomen and battery-powered heartbeat, allowing guests to take his pulse and hold soft reproductions of his heart, lungs, intestines, stomach and other organs. When the Weller Center ended its exhibit floor programming in 2008 to concentrate on outreach efforts, the search for Stuffee’s new home began.

Stuffee was created for the Pittsburgh Children’s Museum by Jo Winger in 1983. Winger died from a brain tumor in Jan. 1997 at the age of 41, leaving behind a husband and three young children. A portion of Stuffee proceeds have benefited the Jo Winger Foundation’s health and wellness programs. Stuffee dolls also are used by the Gift of Life Donor Program, Philadelphia, the Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts in Harrisburg, the New York Hall of Science, and other organizations to educate kids about the body and organ donation.

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