NASA’s Mary Hovater is bringing her work home to Cullman. Her outreach efforts on behalf of NASA and her commitment to her hometown prompted Cullman Mayor Max Townson to declare Sept.15-20 as “NASA Week in Cullman.”
Activities Hovater organized throughout the week will give the Cullman community a first-hand look at what NASA and industry leaders are doing in space. She is a systems engineer for the Office of Strategic Analysis and Communications at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
“I believe it will be a really cool and different way to reach out to the Cullman community, many who work at Marshall, and many students who aspire to do great things like build rockets,” she said.
She seized this opportunity to engage and inspire future scientists, engineers and explorers when the Cullman High School band dedicated their 2014 marching season program to space and NASA. Plans for a county band exhibition quickly turned into a weeklong event recognizing Cullman’s deep connections to NASA and the aerospace industry.
Her interest in NASA began when she was a student. A NASA speaker visited her school in Cullman to talk about his work on tiles that would cover the space shuttle.
“I was already dreaming in the stars, but I knew then what I wanted to do, and I made it my goal to work for NASA,” she recalled. “If there is a way for me to pass that spark on, I want to. It’s that spark that keeps lighting rockets and sending us to new worlds.”
During the week of Sept 15-20, Hovater and volunteers from Marshall’s Speaker’s Bureau will visit ten local schools and Wallace State Community College to share their enthusiasm about space and the benefits of careers in math, science and engineering.
Students will also have a chance to see a model of NASA’s newest rocket — the Space Launch System — along with a lunar sample or “moon rock” and other NASA artifacts during the Cullman County Band Exhibition at Cullman High School on Saturday, Sept. 20 at 5:00 p.m. Booths from government, industry and small business partners will also be on display.
The Cullman High School band will perform their space-themed program at the Saturday event. It begins with a trumpet solo played by Hovater’s son over an audio recording of President John F. Kennedy’s famous “We choose to go to the moon…” speech.
With NASA Week in Cullman, Hovater shows what can happen one person chooses to share with others the wonder and excitement of space.
For information about how to request a NASA Marshall speaker or exhibit, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/about/request.html.
For more information about Marshall Space Flight Center, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/home/index.html.
Molly Porter
Marshall Space Flight Center
256-544-2771
molly.a.porter@nasa.gov