The brand new Discovery Center at the Oconaluftee Visitor Center in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is kid tested and kid approved.

The one-of-a-kind, $112,000 interactive learning center was officially opened Wednesday, Jan. 10.

The Discovery Center will “help children of all ages, with hands on-experience,” and “expand the Parks as Classroom program,” Park Superintendent Michael Tollefson told those gathered at the dedication ceremony last week.

Tollefson said the center would be instrumental in sharing the exciting and vital research going on in the park. He said the exhibit would help relay the information being compiled for the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory to children and students visiting the park.

Charles Maynard, executive director of Friends of Great Smoky Mountains National Park (FOS), said the Discovery Center was “kid friendly and accurate.” He said that students from Pi Beta Phi Elementary in Gatlinburg and Cherokee Elementary in Cherokee “helped tell us what worked and what didn’t.”

Ten Cherokee Elementary fourth-graders from Ms. Esther Brown’s and Ms. Donna Beck’s classes, along with Vanessa Lopez and Kyle Carroll from Ms. Kelley Watson’s fifth-grade class, were present for the opening. Lopez and Carroll are two of the Cherokee Elementary students who helped create the Discovery Center.

Maynard also praised the Coca Cola Foundation.

“We appreciate Coke’s commitment, not just here, but throughout the Park Service,” said Maynard.
The Discovery Center at Oconaluftee is one of 12 discovery centers throughout the U.S. Park Service that is sponsored by the Coca Cola Foundation, according to National Park Foundation spokesperson Jennifer Larson. Larson said that a $1.5 million grant from Coca Cola is being used to create unique learning centers at national parks across the country. Oconaluftee joins such diverse sites as Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site in Atlanta and Biscayne National Park in Florida.

Larson said that the National Parks Foundation, created by Congress in 1967, works with the park service to match the interests of the donors with needs. The NPF has provided more than $20.9 million in grants to national parks throughout the country since 1993. According to Larson, 94 cents of every dollar donated to the foundation goes to the parks.

Adrian King, manager of education programs for the Coca Cola Foundation, said the foundation was delighted to be associated with the Discovery Centers because “we take a broad definition of classroom.”

Coca Cola donated $100,000 to the Oconaluftee center and Friends of the Smokies donated $12,000.
There are 10 interactive learning stations at the Oconaluftee Discovery Center. They include Salamander Search, Unsolved Mysteries, and Stories from the Field, where guests can hear short presentations from park staff as well as area scientists and researchers.

Susan Sachs of the GSMNP said the Center was developed by the park’s research and education department. She said it will be maintained by the Oconoluftee Visitor Center staff as long as it remains there, but that it would probably go to the new learning center at Purchase Knob sometime in the near future.

 

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The Smoky Mountain News