The Tallahassee Museum was named “Non-Profit Organization of the Year” for 2010 by the Greater Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce this month during its 25th annual Small Business Excellence awards luncheon. The Museum was one of eight award winners from a field of more than 70 nominees.

“This award and recognition would not have been possible without the brain power, hard work and support of our Board of Trustees and our staff,” said Russell Daws, the Museum’s executive director and CEO. “We also hold a great debt of gratitude to all of our members, donors, and friends who have stuck with us through thick and thin and who truly recognize and value the Museum’s contributions to this community.”

The Tallahassee Museum has joined in a nationwide salute to military families by providing free admission to active-duty military personnel and their families now through Labor Day. This is part of the nationwide “Blue Star Museums” initiative launched by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Blue Star Families network.

The Museum will admit active-duty military personnel with military I.D. and their families (total of six admissions) for free starting Friday (May 28) and throughout the summer until Labor Day. This includes Reservists and members of the National Guard. The Tallahassee Museum is an ideal place for military families, like all families, to spend memorable time together, relaxing in the beauty of nature, enjoying and learning about our natural world and experiencing our region's past.

"We are proud to support and be a part of the Blue Star Museums initiative. The men and women of our military and their families help preserve our heritage and way of life on a daily basis. For this we are grateful, and this is our small way of giving back to military families for their sacrifices, which include giving up time spent together," said Russell Daws, the Museum's executive director and CEO. "We look forward to seeing Blue Star families here enjoying what we have to offer."
Free admission for military families is related to the Museum’s “We’re In It Together” campaign, launched early in the economic recession to provide free and discounted admissions to people most impacted by job losses and financial strain.

The Southeast Tourism Society has named Market Days a Top 20 event in the Southeast for December, placing it in a distinguished group of events recommended by travel industry experts. Market Days, a juried arts and crafts show now in its 45th year, is one of the Southeast’s largest and best, attracting approximately 300 fine artists and top-quality crafts makers from around the nation and up to 15,000 holiday shoppers. This year’s show is set for Dec. 4-5, at the North Florida Fairgrounds in Tallahassee, Fla.

Top 20 recognition by the Southeast Tourism Society positions Market Days 2010 to receive extensive media exposure in the United States and Canada, including print, internet, TV and radio. Society President William Hardman, announcing the fall Top 20 Events, said the society distributes the listings to more than 800 newspapers, magazines and broadcast stations, and to AAA and other travel-related organizations. Hardman added that the Atlanta Journal-Constitution prints the Atlanta-headquartered society’s Top 20 Events as a quarterly feature in its travel pages, and Top 20 Events were recently featured on the New Orleans-based radio show “Travel Talk Radio.”

Children from disadvantaged families will be able to attend the Tallahassee Museum’s nature-based summer camps starting in June thanks to a grant from The PBSJ Foundation, Inc., and the generous support of Peter R. Brown Construction, Inc. The Foundation awarded the Museum a $5,000 grant to underwrite summer camp scholarships for children who might not otherwise be able to attend.

The Tallahassee Museum provides wholesome, outdoor summer experiences for youth, including nature-based camps and field trips to learn about wildlife and the environment, history-based camps to learn about communities and ways of life from yesteryear, and science-based camps covering subjects such as geology, flight, and hurricanes.

“In these difficult economic times, this generous gift from the PBSJ Foundation and Peter Brown Construction will make a big difference in the lives of childrenwho would not have been able to participate due to financial limitations,” said Russell Daws, the Tallahassee Museum’s executive director and CEO. “What these kids are going to learn and experience will have a profound impact on their lives and future, thanks to the generous support of the PBSJ Foundation and Peter Brown Construction.”

The PBSJ Corporation and Peter Brown Construction have a long history of giving back to the communities in which their employees live and work. What began as the passion of individual employees for community service has become a hallmark of the PBSJ/Peter Brown Construction corporate culture. Through the PBSJ Foundation, PBSJ companies support worthy charitable causes, ranging from scholarships to youth education and development programs.

Rare animal was euthanized at UF; second panther at Museum remains in good health

The Tallahassee Museum’s 10-year-old male panther, one of two panthers at the Museum, has died after a two-month illness. The cat was humanely euthanized Friday, May 14, at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine after specialists there determined he had an aggressive internal tumor that was painful and non-treatable. “He was a great animal who was a favorite of Museum visitors and staff alike,” said Animal Curator Mike Jones. “He arrived at the Museum with his sister when they were six months old and was a happy and playful animal throughout his life. His sister remains at the Museum, in good health.”

In April, hundreds of visitors joined Museum staff, FSU art students, and the Cat Life Foundation in celebrating the pair’s 10th birthday.

The Tallahassee Museum panthers represent the endangered Florida panther in the wild and have helped to inspire thousands of Museum visitors to learn more about wildlife, the natural environment, and the importance of conservation and sustainable lifestyles.

Ok, I’m ready for some warm and dry weather! The past several months have been either too cold or too wet or both for my liking. It appears my observations are also borne out by a chill on the Museum’s recent financial statements.

Prior to December, Museum attendance and revenues were doing very well in light of the current economic conditions but then December hit and things started falling apart…the first day of Market Days was greeted by cold and wet weather, then rains impacted our normally large visitation during the holidays as well as our holiday day camps. Of course, as you know, the weather during January and February has been equally interesting! When our visitation drops, so does our retail and membership sales and renewals.

So, with this as a backdrop, you can imagine my elation when we finally had a warm, dry and beautiful day for our recent Saturday Matinee of the Arts event and over 2,000 people visited us! Clearly, people had not forgotten us!

Actually, I knew all along we had not been forgotten due to the wonderful donations we received in response to our year-end annual fund appeal. The generosity of our donors and supporters this year was just amazing and exceeded the year-end donations of a year before. Thank you again to all of you who included the Museum in your giving plans during the holidays! You really allowed us to keep going when the weather was doing its best to slow us down!

The Tallahassee Museum is having a very busy and productive fall. Thanks to the generous support of our sponsors, restaurants, volunteers, and participants, Zoobilee and Halloween both exceeded our expectations and have provided our education, preservation, and conservation activities with valuable revenues for the coming year. Please make a personal effort to patronize our sponsors and restaurants that support the Museum and make our events possible.

Our next and biggest fundraising event is Market Days on December 5 and 6 at the North Florida Fairgrounds. Market Days is critically important to the Museum’s budget, accounting for about 10% of our annual income, and pays for a wide range of operating expenses including animal food, educational programs, insurance and utility bills, building repairs and maintenance and free admission for Leon County schoolchildren.

Market Days is not only our region’s holiday shopping tradition but also an important economic contributor to our area with approximately 30% of Market Days attendees (15,000+) coming from outside of our region. Again, we are very fortunate to have a significant number of sponsors and volunteers helping to make Market Days possible.

I encourage you to support the Museum and our community by attending Market Days, buying an Early Bird ticket (which can now be securely purchased on-line through the Museum’s website), and by telling all of your friends about the wonderful and original gifts that can be very economically purchased.

During the Museum’s recent annual corporate meeting, new board officers and members were elected. Outgoing president Susan Baldino was thanked for her Museum leadership and accomplishments related to enhanced board governance and board fundraising and efforts to implement an interpretive planning process. Newly elected board president, Michael Stehlik of Capital City Bank, pledged to maintain the initiatives begun under Susan’s tenure, especially strengthening the Museum through strong board leadership, recruitment, and fundraising.

By Sarah Butters, Esq.*

In these difficult economic times, gifting to your favorite charities may be difficult or even anxiety provoking. Many of us have seen our portfolios shrink and our investment income decline. Leaving a legacy through testamentary gifts, however, is a great way to show your continued support for your favorite charities while ensuring your assets are available for your needs during your lifetime.

Testamentary gifts are, quite simply, gifts that are not payable to the beneficiary until the donor's death. Testamentary gifts come in many forms and most are revocable, meaning the donor can change the amount and designee at any time. Some of the most common testamentary charitable gifts are:

1. Wills and Trusts: The most common testamentary gift is a specific gift of cash or assets through a last will and testament or living trust. Charities welcome gifts of cash, but check with your favored charity before gifting certain assets, like cars and real estate. These assets can carry with them liability risks, so some charities have policies that prevent them from accepting these types of gifts.

Welcome to summertime! It’s that special time of year when many of us have more leisure time for enjoying the great outdoors. With the tough economy, the Museum is proving to be a popular and economical choice for people who are looking for enjoyable, memorable activities. Our attendance is almost 40% higher than a year ago!

Much of our attendance growth is being fueled by our efforts to respond to the needs of our community. Our well received “We’re In It Together” campaign and its special pricing has helped to ease the recession blues and ensure that families can continue to make great memories together this summer.

Summertime is also when we send out one of our annual fund appeals. With Museum attendance up and its funding down, it is a daily challenge to make sure we have the financial resources necessary to sustain our programs, maintain the Museum, and feed the animals. Tax-deductible gifts to the annual fund help ensure that we meet the the needs of schoolchildren on field trips, families on visits, and our community partners in the neighborhoods and towns across our region. We can put your gift to use today, whether its $20 or $1,000.

Caring for Our Collections

Like people, animals need health care. The animals in the Tallahassee Museum’s living collections thrive in the care of veterinarians who truly heed the call of the wild.

One of those vets is Dr. Debbie Justice, who recently took our otters literally in hand to clean their teeth, give them vaccinations and perform physical exams. This included drawing blood for laboratory analysis to monitor the health of their internal organs and to watch for signs of possible disease.

Dr. Justice performed these maintenance and preventative procedures without a hitch, and the otter in the photo was back splashing in the pool the same afternoon.

Tallahassee Museum summer campers made a thrilling discovery recently when they witnessed and documented an extremely rare Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle nesting on the beach at Bald Point State Park, in Franklin County.

Kemp’s Ridleys are the world’s most endangered sea turtle, and they almost never nest on Florida beaches.

The discovery, made by youngsters in the Tallahassee Museum’s “Outdoor Explorers” summer camp, was greeted with celebration by park managers and marine scientists who subsequently verified the identification of the turtle based on the children’s photographs. The photos also enabled park managers to locate and provide protection for the nest.

The Joy of Paper Dolls
By Linda Deaton, Chief Curator

Do you remember paper dolls?  The two-dimensional printed dolls came with a paper wardrobe. It took careful work with scissors to artfully cut out the doll and its assortment of paper clothes, making sure not to tear the white tabs that extended from the outfits, since those were needed to attach the garment to the doll’s body.
 
During the 20th century, publishers and toy companies produced a variety of paper dolls for children’s enjoyment. Hollywood starlets, smiling girls and boys, and even cuddly paper-doll animals provided inexpensive entertainment and kept many a child occupied for hours.

We were very pleased to have received a number of complimentary emails and good suggestions in response to the launch of last month’s inaugural Tallahassee Museum E-News.  We also discovered an added benefit to this new format…we can actually track how many people viewed the E-News and which articles were most popular.  Thank you! 

With the conclusion of the legislative session last month, we now know that virtually no State funding was appropriated for the many cultural and historical organizations throughout the state. For the Tallahassee Museum, this may result in a funding loss of up $92,000 compared to our current year funding.  The exact funding loss will not be known until later when we learn if we were able to secure any of the money that was allocated.

If you are receiving this newsletter, it is likely because you've made an annual contribution to the Tallahassee Museum in the past.   In the estate planning community, we call this type of gift an "annual gift". Annual gifts are typically made from a donor's discretionary income and
used by the charity to meet annual budgetary needs.  This article, however, will focus on Planned Giving, which typically refers to a major gift, made during a donor's lifetime or at death. 

The Civil War comes alive this summer as the Tallahassee Museum presents an outstanding new exhibit: Florida in the Civil War. This exhibit, in the Phipps Gallery through Sept. 15, relates the often overlooked story of Florida’s important contributions to the war effort.  It is on loan from the Orange County Regional History Center in Orlando, one of Florida’s largest history museums and a leading provider of traveling exhibitions.

Welcome to our first issue of the Tallahassee Museum E-News!  I hope that you find our new format and method of delivery both effective and informative.  We know there is still much for us to learn  to make our E-News better.  As always, we are hoping that you will share your observations and suggestions with us.