Museums & Attractions
- The Mississippi Museum of Natural Science in Jackson will host the Megalodon: Largest Shark That Ever Lived exhibit through Jan. 9, 2011. Related to the modern great white and mako sharks, Megalodon was a dominant marine predator for 15 million years before vanishing 2 million years ago. The exhibit was produced by the Florida Museum of Natural History with support from the National Science Foundation and conveys current research findings of Florida Museum paleontologists, as well as showcases both fossil and modern shark specimens and full-scale models from several collections. The exhibit is sponsored locally by the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science Foundation and the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, among other supporters. For more information, call 601.354.7303.
- Fayetteville/Cumberland County’s themed Cultural Heritage Trails can now take participants on a high-tech treasure hunt using hand-held GPS devices with the new geocaching game called the Greater Fayetteville GPS Trail Trek. Through 13 different pre-planned itineraries, the heritage trails, in Fayetteville, N.C., allow participants to explore the area’s local and American history. The itineraries range from African-American heritage to international cuisine. Ammo boxes, which serve as the cache boxes, are hidden in 10 sites among the 13 trails and are pre-stocked with local patriotic trinkets and a logbook for participants to record their visit. Geocachers are aided by an official Trail Trek guide providing game rules, as well as the coordinates and clues required to locate the various ammo boxes. Geocachers can obtain an official Trail Trek guide from the Fayetteville Area CVB. For more information, call 910.483.5311.
Kudos
- Oklahoma’s largest hotel and conference center, the National Center for Employee Development (NCED), in Norman, is the first property to earn the highest sustainable travel certification offered by ECO—Encouraging Conservation in Oklahoma—the state’s premiere sustainable travel program. The center earned the Platinum Travel Standard certification by meeting set criteria and implementing sustainability programs. NCED began implementing green programs about seven years ago, including an herb garden that is planted every year and food scraps that are donated to the Little River Zoo. Between 2008 and 2009, the facility reduced gas consumption by 18.3 percent, and began using glass water bottles, which eliminated the use of 80,000 plastic bottles a year. For more information, call 405.366.4420.
- The Hilton New Orleans Riverside is one of 1,300 Hilton Worldwide properties using the LightStay program, Hilton’s proprietary sustainability measurement system. LightStay measures energy and water use as well as waste and carbon outputs at the property and analyzes performance across 200 operational practices, such as housekeeping, paper product usage, food waste, chemical storage, air quality and transportation. In the first full year of findings, the 2009 LightStay results show that the 1,300 properties using the system conserved enough energy to power 5,700 homes for a year, saved enough water to fill more than 650 Olympic-size pools and reduced carbon output equivalent to taking 34,865 cars off the road. LightStay provides a meeting impact calculator feature that measures the impact of any meeting or conference. The New Orleans property also focuses on corporate social responsibility by helping organize local group voluntourism projects, such as working with Brad Pitt’s Make It Right Foundation, one of many organizations focused on contributing to the city’s Hurricane Katrina recovery program. For more information, call 504.561.0500.