Celebration to be out of this world
MARS — Gregg Hartung, the mayor who dreamed up the stellar Mars New Year celebration, expects the second event to be twice the planetary fun and education.
The Mars New Year celebration will take place from 4:30 to 10 p.m. on May 4 and 5 and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 6 in downtown Mars.
Hartung said when he had the idea two years ago to create a community event that capitalized on the borough's space-related name, he never expected it to blossom into a major celebration for the borough.
“It has taken on a life of its own, way beyond what I originally envisioned,” Hartung said. “A lot more people bought in and participated than I expected.”
Orbiting above the rest of those who have bought into the event is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, which sent 15 employees and a number of presentations and activities to the 2015 event.
This year, NASA will send 30 experts.
“(NASA) sees this as something they want to be involved in for a number of years,” Hartung said.
He said NASA is expanding its exhibits and hands-on activities for the 2017 Mars New Year.
The new booths include one that will be operated by 1991 Mars High School graduate April Pergl Lanotte, an educational consultant who works with NASA's aeronautics engineers to create lessons and activities related to NASA's projects.
In her exhibit, Lanotte will do the PEEP Depressurization Chamber Interactive Demo, Hartung said.
Another Mars High School graduate, Katie Beckwith, Class of 2007, will travel home from NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, Calif., to attend the Mars New Year. Beckwith is a materials and processes engineer at the JPL.
Beckwith will give a number of presentations at the event and serve as a judge for the Meet the MARS Challenge!, a school program that presents a hypothetical situation in which 100 people are traveling to the Red Planet to live.
For the program, the students must come up with problems, issues or challenges they would face and create a solution. Each student also must build a model to demonstrate their problem or solution.
One activity that the Mars New Year committee hopes to carry out for attendees is an interplanetary stroll from the hardware store near the south side of Grand Avenue to the Mars Agway on the north end. The walk would feature an accurate scale version of walking the Earth's entire solar system, planet by planet.
Another new feature of this year's event will be the construction of a Mars Rover vehicle by people attending the event.Hartung said Rachel Tillman, the cofounder of the Viking Mars Mission Education and Preservation Project of Portland, Ore., will help festival attendees attach pieces to an exhibit that will end up being a replica of the Rover.“People can actually help build it,” Hartung said.He said Tillman will also help children build space-related items from Legos at the Mars Public Library during the event.Other children's activities at Mars New Year, like face-painting and balloon animals, will be on the grassy area across from the library.Students from the Mars High School Robotics Club will provide demonstrations of the robotic characters and machines they have created.Hartung said the event's planning committee wants to avoid putting on another general festival like the Mars Applefest, which occurs each year in the fall. For that reason, vendors are chosen carefully.“Our vendors are basically businesses or technology-oriented and go along with the theme of the event,” Hartung said.He said more food vendors will be added for the 2017 event.Hartung said serving on the Mars New Year planning committee has been a pleasure, as volunteers have sprung up out of the blue. Many have shared ideas for the event, like the interplanetary stroll down Grand Avenue.He said a major benefit of the Mars New Year is that during the planning stages, a variety of local organizations that normally do not cross paths have worked together.Hartung said the committee includes representatives from the Rich-Mar Rotary, Mars Kiwanis, Mars History and Landmark Society, Mars Public Library and Mars School District, to name a few.“It gives us a chance to work with each other,” Hartung said.He said with NASA's enthusiastic participation, Mars New Year has put the small borough with the otherworldly name on the national map.“Let's make the town a real destination,” he said.The first event was held nearly two years ago — it takes 22 months for the Red Planet to make one full orbit around the sun.More information on the Mars New Year is available at www.marsnewyear.com.
