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| Lindsey's last mission on the Galileo. There has never been a more positive, upbeat, and happy person to darken the Space Center's door. "Mr. Williamson, what's the highlight of your day so far?" was her endearing greeting. |
The Space Center is still the second happiest place on Earth even though one of its finest, and happiest, rays of sunshine has semi-retired. Lindsey Hatch's last duty as a Space Center employee was to flight director the Galileo's 5 hour mission on September 11. I stopped by to celebrate the occasion with cupcakes. "Mr. Williamson, what's the highlight of your day so far?" was her greeting when she saw me poke my head around the Galileo's FD barrier in the cafeteria.
"Seeing you of course," was my pre-determined reply. What else could I say?
Lindsey is genetically programmed to be happy. It's in her nature to see the positive in all situations. She can turn any dark day into something bearable if not enjoyable. She is talented, enthusiastic, energetic and helpful - ready to accept nearly any task. She is one in a million.
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| Christine A Happy Person |
If I didn't know better, I'd say that Lindsey is a closeted Christinite. Defined as a follower of the happiest person ever in Space Center history - Christine Grosland, now Christine Smith. I'm thinking Christine secretly accepted Lindsey as her padowan to ensure a constant, steady, and reliable counter force to the mischievous Fortuna and the darkness that spews from her persona when the Space Center is in her crosshairs.
The Space Centering community wishes Lindsey the very best as she starts her studies at Utah State University in Logan. Now, we must hope and pray that Christine has another chosen one to dispel the approaching darkness.
Mr. Williamson
Lindsey's Goodbye Email
Mr. Williamson,
Six years ago, I don't think I ever would have imagined how much I'd fall in love with ships, the people, the memories, and the Discipline of Wonder. Even just a year ago? I don't think I would have ever imagined that I would be leaving so soon. Thank you for creating something so beautifully wonderful.
I've grown a lot as I've lost myself in each of the ships. I have had the ride of my life and I have loved every moment. I'll never forget the wonderful moments I've had. Now, I can't wait to see what adventures life has in store. Keep in touch! And thank you for starting this all. Sometimes I don't think that you get many shoutouts, so here is one more: Thank you, thank you, thank you, Mr. Williamson! You truly started something incredible!
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LindseyFinally, This was the volunteer application Lindsey's sent to me back in the day.
My name is Lindsey Hatch, and I am VERY interested in becoming a volunteer at the Space Center. As a young girl I always dreamed of coming and working there. I am twelve and just got out of the sixth grade. Throughout the year I worked in our school library. I was given the opportunity from the librarian because she saw me as a responsible girl who she knew could get the job done. When I started volunteering I had NO experience whatsoever with the software. By the end of the year I preformed the inventory of the books and worked on changing large portions of the library’s barcodes. With this experience I have learned how to operate large amounts of the Alexandria Librarian program. Although I may not have as much computer experience as other candidates for a position at the Space Center, I have been in the A.L.L. program two years and have made it into the ACAD and the accelerated math programs for junior high. I am a very quick learner and can grasp onto concepts easier than most. This past year I was also on the student council. I always volunteered to do the tasks that I knew that no one else would want to do, whether it was because how much time it took or how “un-fun” the task seemed. This included taking jobs at student run activities that required taking on two different jobs. Or when we went over to a special needs school to help out. I usually worked with one of three of the students there, a boy who used a walker and could only grunt, a boy who liked to chew on his thumb and then kiss whoever was working with him, or a boy that at a certain trigger would get mad and hit hard and then run out of the class room. I grew to love all of the kids I helped out with. My school class could often get tense. I took it on as a goal to try to make those who would get at each other to get along. How I did this was trying to make the environment a more fun place.
Often I organized weekly activities for everyone to participate in. the most consistent of these were Granny Sweater Wednesdays and Spirit Clothes Fridays. On these days the class was tons more serene. There were less fights and less drama. We were just like one big, happy, non fighting family. We were unified. Even some of those who, at first rolled their eyes at the idea of some of our class holidays became full-fudged enthusiasts. With the help of those activities I planned some of those kids made true friends I LOVE public speaking and other forms of acting. This year our class put on A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I played the role of Nick Bottom, the first girl to ever do it. Last year, our class put on Macbeth my original role was one of the witches. However, the boy who played Macduff announced the night before performance that he wasn’t going to be there. Our teacher gave me the lines that night, and I preformed both roles throughout the next day. At that same time I was in the only school play our school has ever had. I played one of three narrators that posed as civilians throughout the play. I have gone on to finals on school wide story telling festivals through grade school, competing against older kids.
When I tell stories I try to find really obscure characters that really have to get a little creative with to make the story work, my favorite thing to do while getting a story ready is to spend hours to get the voices just right. Since I tell stories a lot, I can quickly make a voice for characters in books while I am reading aloud in school during reading groups, there are times I’m not satisfied with voice, in that case every time I read as that character, I tweak it until satisfied. I can also sustain the voices; there have been days were I was dared to speak a certain way when just talking to my friends and when I wasn’t talking to a teacher. I have also done several summer productions with the American Fork Youth Theatre, including Honk! Jr. and Cinderella. In these productions we not only worked on those plays, we also went to acting workshops. During school we also play a game where we are given a role and we try to play it out in the most creative way, which is usually all that I would play when I wasn’t working in the school library. If you are interested in having me volunteering, contact me at (801) ******** e-mail me at *************** or, you can mail me at ******** American Fork, Utah 84003.
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| 48 Hour Campers Arrive for their EdVenture at the CMSEC. July 2007 |
Space Center Archives: Posts from the Past
The Downpour: Power outages, Magellan Floods. The Gym Floods. James and Stephen Porter Retire. Alex DeBirk's First Overnight Camp as Flight Director.
People Mentioned: Kyle Herring, Josh Webb, Alex Debirk, Matt Long, James Porter, Stephan Porter, Soren Seibach, Rick Cowdell, Rio Downs.
September 8, 2002
Greeting and Salutations from the Front Lines!
Are We Enjoying this Rain?
You won't find a happier person in the intermountain west right now than Mr. Williamson. Many of you that know me well understand my appreciation and adoration for the darker side of life. When I say "darker", I don't mean a life of sin and anti-social behavior. I also do not refer to a lifestyle among those who dress in the neo-gothic style. I'm not one that rushes home at night to quickly shed the clothing of a respectable Utah school teacher and replace it with black boots, black pants, black shirt, silver chains, and a black long
overcoat. No, no, no........
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| Lots of Smiles at the Start of the 3 Day EdVenture Camp July 2007 |
When I say "dark" I refer to weather. I live for the darker side of weather. My description of a great day is rainy and gloom. While others sit inside wrapped in woolen blankets, I'm on my deck with diet coke in hand bathing in the view of mountains draped by layers of gray cloud. I smile thinking the sun will be hidden all day. My mood brightens the darker and stormier it gets. The thick clouds to people like me are layers of blankets covering the sky. To us, the smell of rain is far better than a flowering rose. Yes, this weekend was a prayed for gift for those of us that proudly call ourselves "Gloomers" . You "Sunners" will never understand. Come on fellow Gloomers. Let your voices be heard.
There Magellan staff and volunteers didn't appreciate the rain this weekend on the Friday night overnight camp. The Magellan's control room was badly leaking in the downpour. Central's roof doesn't drain very well. The leaks were caused by holes put into the roof to run the air hose for the Magellan's sliding doors separating the Situation Room to the
Bridge. Kyle Herring was called at once. His boat arrived a few hours later and the problem was solved - at least so we thought until the next cloud buster came through. The liquid sunshine dripped in just as the overnight was starting.
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| A Phoenix Officer ready for his mission. July 2007 |
The rain was accompanied by a brief power loss. The simulators lost their power momentarily. This caused the Magellan's delicate network to crash. The campers were brought into the building early. What kind of caring camp would we be if we made our campers and parents wait outside in the pouring rain?
This weekend's camp was considered jinxed by many of us. I told everyone to move to their loading stations and started for the gym. Rick came rushing in saying the gym
roof was leaking. I picked up my pace and found a steady stream of water pouring in from around on of the swamp coolers in the ceiling. "Well," I thought. "We will finally get that Space Center swimming pool I've always dreamt of."
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| Starship Voyager Security getting their final instructions on their first mission of the EdVenture Camp July 2007 |
So... there we were, campers needing a place to gather, leaking roof, growing puddles, phasers going off. What else was there to worry about? MY HOUSE! In really heavy downpours sometimes water gets into one of my basement window wells. The water
builds up and then leaks into the basement through the window. No one was home. I sent Josh Webb off in a hurry to my house to check on the water situation. He called and said the water was building up and was beginning to leak into the house. Good Ole Josh did what any good employee would do sensing his boss was in trouble. He jumped into the window well with bucket in hand and bailed out the water. The leak stopped. The basement was saved. Of course, I also needed him at the Center. I asked him if the pump in the well was working. He said no. He went to check on the circuit breaker and found it had tripped. He reset the breaker and the window well pump came on. The water receded.
The overnight mission went ahead without further problems. I want to thank Josh for the extra effort. I also want to thank Kyle Herring for not only working on the school's roof but also for mopping the water up off the gym floor at the beginning of the camp.
After all of that, I still enjoy this weather and rain.
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| The Magellan Crew. First Rotation Mission July 2007 |
We had a good group of kids on the overnight mission. The boys went to bed without a problem. The staff was great. Mercy Strike was successful. No complaints from any campers about any of the simulators or stories. We were a bit overcrowded. Instead of 42 campers the 4H sent 45. We also had a few extra staff on hand. I was woken up once by Clint, one of our Pioneer helpers. He was sleep talking. I asked him what he was dreaming after he woke up on Saturday Morning. "I had a dream about owning and driving an Ice Cream Truck and crashing it into everybody," he said.
You can get some pretty funky dreams at the Space Center. Some of my weirdest
have been there. I think it has to do with our method of operation. We are totally involved in running a heavily dramatic interactive experience up to 11:00 P.M. and by midnight we are in bed. There isn't a lot of rest between the drama and bed time so our brains use sleep as a way of decompressing from the missions and storing the information in neat little memory pockets. Does anyone else have weird dreams on the Friday night of an overnighter?
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| The Galileo's spiked "kool-aid" for their summer mission July 2007 |
We are getting ready for a very busy Honor's Program next Saturday afternoon. Several Honors will be given. Patches will be awarded along with Ranger Bars, pillow cases, and blankets. We will retire James Porter as he heads north to college. We will bid Bon Voyage to Stephen Porter who will be leaving on a mission. By the way, this week's overnighter will be Stephen's last before leaving. Everyone please plan on coming Saturday to say goodbye to the Porters. They both were dedicated Space Center volunteers , employees,
and friends.
Some news from the Ships. The Magellan has a new Red Alert light track and the Galileo has new speakers and subwoofer. The sound is pretty good for a little ship. The Galileo's older speakers are being installed in the Situation Room (Discovery Room) to jazz up the sound system from the video projector.
The Galileo overnight mission was directed by Alex DeBirk (with Kyle on hand to assist and supervise). Congratulations Alex on your first overnight mission as a Flight Director.
The school year program is almost ready. Jennifer Remy is putting the finishing touches on the curriculum. Matt Long is getting the stacks ready. Soren Seibach and Stephen Porter are doing the science stack. I'm ready to start booking kids for overnighters and classes. The school year flyer should reach the schools this week.
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| It's the traditional snack before bed time for our 42 overnight campers. 11:10 P.M. July 2007 |
I'm excited to announce that Rio Downs will be joining us on Monday's, Wednesdays, and Fridays at the Space Center for the morning field trip.
This week I start training the new crop of 5th and 6th grade junior staff from Central. I'll have the interns help with that.
I think that is all from the trenches. Be good troops and remember out
new grade policy. YOU CAN'T HAVE ANY GRADE BELOW A "C" THIS SCHOOL
YEAR AND STILL VOLUNTEER. THAT MEANS A "C-" PUTS YOU OUT OF
COMMISSION, OR AT LEAST ON PROBATION, FOR A SEMESTER. TRACK YOUR
GRADES AND REPAIR ANY DAMAGE SOONER RATHER THAN LATER.
As always all the best to you and yours.
Mr. Williamson
Imaginarium Theater
The Best Gifs from Around the World Edited for a Gentler Audience
