The Evanston Township High School Educational Foundation plans to kick off a fundraising campaign to renovate the school’s planetarium with a Wildkit Golf Outing next month at the Highland Park Country Club.
Foundation officials say the ETHS planetarium was the first built on a high school campus in America when it opened in 1968.
Now the foundation hopes to raise $450,000 to support the renovation project.
“The planetarium project fits perfectly into the Foundation’s mission, which is to enhance students’ educational opportunities by raising money for projects that are beyond the means of conventional public funding,” says Foundation Board President Matt TerMolen. “We are thrilled that this project will impact so many students at ETHS, as well as other students in Evanston.”
With 21st century technology updates to the ETHS planetarium, not only will teachers be able to bring current astronomy lessons to life, but the renovation will provide a new way to teach using immersive experiences.
When the planetarium renovation project is complete, astronomy students will be able to study the universe from any point in space and any time.
Geoscience students will be able to study the earth inside and out with live data updates from the U.S. Geological Survey, and other ETHS classes will be able to be immersed in simulations similar to those experienced in an Imax theater.
Plans are to also make the facility available to District 65 schools and various youth groups.
The golf outing will be held Friday, Sept. 5.
The Autobarn of Evanston is sponsoring a hole-in-one contest, where the first to get a hole-in-one will ride home in a brand new Mazda convertible. Tickets are $200 for Golf and Happy Hour, and $50 for Happy Hour only.
For more information, or to register for the golf outing, visit the foundation website.