Erik & Erica Zipp
Odd Ball Co-Chairs
Welcome to the Museum's 2016 Odd Ball
It is our pleasure to welcome you to Odd Ball, an event that
generates critical funding to support the Museum’s mission
of providing hands-on learning experiences that help prepare
children to become accomplished students and responsible
adults. We are deeply grateful for your support.
As we celebrate more than 20 years as a leading
educational resource in the community, we remain
steadfast in our commitment to supporting local families
that are struggling to raise a young child. Your participation
in Odd Ball will enable the Museum to benefit more than
240,000 children and adults during the coming year, and
help sustain Museum outreach initiatives that provide free
parenting education, admission, membership, field trips and
transportation assistance programs and events that benefit
80,000 participants annually, including families living in
poverty, foster families, teen parents, at-risk fathers, and
others whose circumstances often limit their use of resources
that can develop a child’s skills and shape their lifelong
values.
We want all of our community’s children to have experiences
that will spark their interests and build their capacity to learn
and grow. The Museum has embraced a national platform
to improve science, technology, engineering, arts and math
(STEAM) education by taking a leadership role – both locally
and nationally – to promote the Maker Movement, a global
community of inventors, entrepreneurs, educators, students,
and do-it-yourselfers that are changing how we live, work
and learn. The Museum offers a broad range of STEAM-based
maker programs for families and students throughout the
year, and we are proud to co-host the third-annual Maker
Faire® Milwaukee, a family-friendly event that promotes
education, and economic and workforce development. The
Faire is the largest free event of its kind in our nation and
reflects the Museum’s commitment to ensuring that all
children in our community have the opportunity to develop
the problem-solving, creative and conceptual skills they will
need to be successful in school…and for a lifetime.
Thank you for attending Odd Ball. We hope that you enjoy
tonight’s event, featuring a variety of sights, sounds and
tastes that showcase the talent and innovation of local
makers. Your contribution of much-needed resources to
support the Museum’s educational mission and outreach
initiatives is deeply appreciated and represents an important
investment in the future of our families and our community.