Space Saturday: Community celebrates James Webb Space Telescope’s first images

Dozens of kids of all ages with family in tow converged on the Thelma Parker Memorial Public and School Library in Waimea Saturday to celebrate NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s first images providing the deepest infrared view of the universe yet.

The NASA @ My Library event featured a variety of educational space science activities put on by the various partners, including Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, Girl Scouts of Hawaii, ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center, NASA Solar System Ambassadors, University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy, and W.M. Keck Observatory.

The activities were geared for all ages, and ranged from learning about the cutting-edge telescope and how a star forms to how scientists use different light filters to study stars and more.

“This is awesome. There’s so many groups. It’s so interactive and there’s so many knowledgeable people,” said parent Ilene Grossman as her daughter took part in creating a moon phase garland at one of the four activity tables set up by Girl Scouts of Hawaii. “There’s not a lot of opportunities in Waimea for extra curricular learning.”

“This is neat. This is how you learn — just extra effort,” added fellow parent, Abigail Bordigioni, who tipped off Grossman and other parents to the free educational event after seeing a flyer posted at the Kamuela Post Office.

NASA @ My Library is a STEM education initiative created to increase and enhance STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) learning opportunities for library patrons throughout the nation, including geographic areas and populations currently under-represented in STEAM education. NASA provides a variety of resources for activities, as well as stickers and other goodies to give away to participants.

“We want to encourage STEM learning in the community. The goal of the NASA @ My Library initiative is to encourage STEM learning and STEM interest in the community with the support of NASA resources,” said Phyllis Kanekuni, who helped organize the fun-filled event.

Saturday’s four hours of fun and learning was also the first NASA @ My Library event held in Waimea since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020.

“We’re just so thrilled that we could actually do something in person outdoors and the weather is great,” she said. “We really wanted to do something for the community and this is the first in-person event we’ve had in more than two years.”

Seven-year-old Alani Freeman was one of the dozens of youngsters roaming the grounds Saturday. While creating her own “galaxy montage,” she agreed with her father that it’s important to promote science, adding, “it’s cool.”

“My favorite part about this?” she asked. “Everything,”