Johnny McDonald | Downtown News
A place for veterans
The Veterans Museum and Memorial Center occupies the former Naval Hospital chapel on Inspiration Point in Balboa Park, and it features past and present military collections.
It is also tempered as a comforting location for bereaving families and veterans seeking solace in civilian adjustments. Programs offered are Eagle’s Wings and Vets-to-Vets, the latter only a few months in operation.
Executive Director Rod Melendez said Eagle’s Wings is a support group for veterans and families suffering the loss of a loved one.
“The program provides special counseling by trained counselors to help with the grieving process,” he said. “Eagle’s Wings provides the benefit of a social group and camaraderie.”
Vets-to-Vets is sponsored by the Mental Health Advocacy Council, San Diego’s Medical Center. Meetings are scheduled each Tuesday.
“It’s a support program that utilizes veterans in a peer mentoring capacity to help other veterans in confidential meetings,” said Melendez, who is a retired rear admiral. “Veteran volunteers, not staff, are there to assist.“We have a United Veteran’s Council that passes the word throughout San Diego County.”
He said the museum works closely with the Veterans Administration, Veterans Village and Wounded Warriors.
Chairman Michael Silverman said Vets-to-Vets is a nationally run organization. The idea to organize one here came from Los Angeles, where there are 22 groups.
“We began here with five participants but expect that number to grow,” Silverman said. “We had one veteran who had to make two or three bus connections just to get here. And he’s in a wheelchair.”
If there is enough interest they may establish a women’s branch.
Silverman said he spent 21 of his 22 years as a Navy hospital corpsman in Marine green.
Kirsch joins Dome panel
Dr. Jeffrey Kirsch, executive director of the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center, joined a panel discussion on “Playing Together Under the Dome” at the IMERSA 2013 Summit last month, held at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.
Kirsch, former chair of the Giant Screen Cinema Association, is a pioneer and major contributor to the production and exhibition of IMAX films in science museums. The Fleet is home to the world’s first IMAX Dome theater, installed in 1973, and with the recent installation of a new giant dome screen and digital GSX™ system, The Fleet will be the first science center to share a digital planetarium with an IMAX dome theater.
By the way, Dr. Kirsch advised us the other day that he will be retiring after 30-plus years from his Fleet position on July 1.
Anniversary kickoff
On March 9, the IMAX film Rocky Mountain Express will kickoff the Fleet’s 40th anniversary celebration. The film will propel audiences on a steam train journey through the breathtaking vistas of the Canadian Rockies and highlight the adventure of building a nearly impossible transcontinental railway.
Ripley’s world displayed
As an exhibit departure from aviation, the Air and Space Museum is featuring a one-of-a-kind Ripley’s Believe It or Not exhibition. It marks the first time a Ripley’s exhibition has been in San Diego since the California Pacific International Exposition in 1935, the same year the Museum’s Ford Building was built.
For over 40 years, Robert Ripley – a real-life Indiana Jones – traveled the world collecting the unbelievable and the inexplicable. His vast collections have been praised as “amazing,” “ludicrously strange,” and “extremely amusing.”
Some of the many interactive galleries include: unusual modes of transportation, strange people and odd animals, different art, and tribal artifacts collected from around the globe (including an authentic shrunken head).
Now visitors can see the incredible “Believe It or Not!’s” they’ve only read about in the Ripley books, cartoons and watched on television. It’s a self-guided, self-paced interactive tour.
It’s time for science
Various museums and cultural institutions will offer science-related hands-on activities for kids at Balboa Park’s annual Festival of Science and Engineering Science Family Day, this year held on March 16. In addition, a DNA Moving Performance, featuring one of the world’s longest DNA models, will be paraded down the Prado at 11:45 a.m.
Children 12 and under will be admitted free with a paid adult admission at participating museums.
After an award winning, 38-year sports-writing career with the San Diego Union and authoring three books, Johnny McDonald now considers writing a hobby. He enjoys covering aspects of the port district, convention center, Balboa Park, zoo, and stories with a historical bent. You can reach him at [email protected].
