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Community Turns Out to Support Arlington Planetarium

August 1, 2010
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By Cathy Carter

Residents of Arlington Virginia are hoping the stars will continue to shine at a community science center.

At the David M. Brown Planetarium in Arlington, families are filing out of the latest showing of Our Solar System.

Eight-year-old Chloe Lanyi was impressed.

"Yeah, I saw some constellations, and I saw some planets, and I saw Mars," Lanyi says.

Last Spring the Arlington County School board planned to close the facility but residents fought back.

The group, Friends of the Planetarium is hoping to raise enough money to update the facility.

Jim Pebley is one of its members.

"I hate to see this slide. I'm a little appalled at what the school board's been doing by letting this go this way and then making the citizens pay but if that's what we gotta do to save it, this is what we gotta do to save it," Pebley says.

Members of the community group say if they can raise $240,000 by December, the Arlington County School Board will revisit keeping the Planetarium operational.

For now, it's open on a part time basis.

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