moorhead state university
news release
Glenn Tornell
June 21, 1979
Astronaut, games, entertainment, balloon
rides . . .
MSU'S 4TH OF JULY
CELEBRATION OPENS AT 1 P.M.
Moorhead, MN . . .Astronaut candidate Dr. George D. Nelson from the Lyndon
B. Johnson Space Center in Houston will be a featured speaker at Moorhead
State University's old fashioned 4th of July celebration.
Activities--ranging from children's games to hot air balloon rides to
stage music and family films--begin at 1 p.m. on the campus mall and
continue through dusk with a fireworks display over Nemzek Field.
Nelson, a mission specialist with the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration, will open the Independence Day Chautaugua program with a 2
p.m. address on United States progress in space.
Chautauqua, part of MSU's 4th of July celebration, is patterned on the
traveling lecture and theater shows of the turn-of-the-century West. It
will be held in a 40-by-60 foot tent on the mall. A wide range of speakers
will discuss "The Sense of the 1970s" during Chautauqua and then
debate "Will the Eighties Work?" The free cultural program is
supported in part by a grant from the Minnesota Humanities Commission.
Nelson, 28, a 1968 graduate of Willmar (MN) High School, was selected as
an astronaut candidate last year and began a two-year training program to
join a future space shuttle flight. He has a doctorate degree in astronomy
from the University of Washington.
Other activities scheduled for MSU's 4th of July celebration: family films
showing all day in Weld Hall auditorium; hot air balloon rides and two
teams and wagons for hayrides; a decorated bicycle contest for children
beginning at 1:15 p.m.; a planetarium show, "Footsteps,"
documenting man's quest to reach the moon, will be shown all day in
Bridges Hall 153; children's games and bingo; music, mime, juggling, dance
and puppetry from Plain People, a traveling group of local performing
artists; stage entertainment by The Straw Hat Players and the university's
43-member high school summer theatre company; Johnny Flag's 4th of July
Band; free lemonade; and refreshments selling at depression-level prices.
Also on tap, a group of local celebrities will be auctioned off to raise
scholarship money for Moorhead State students. The highest bidder will
have a chance to soak a celebrity in a dunking tank.
A barbecue picnic, open to the public, will begin at 5 p.m. behind the
university library. Tickets--$2.50 for adults and $2 for children--are
available at the MSU alumni office, 236-2555. Some tickets will also be
available that day at the central information tent on the mall.
Fireworks will begin at dusk over Nemzek field on campus. Bleacher seats
will be available to early comers.
The 4th of July celebration is a non-profit event sponsored by MSU.
NOTE TO THE MEDIA - Astronaut Nelson will be available to talk with the
press between 1 and 2 p.m. He will be part of the opening ceremonies at 1
p.m. and can be found on the central stage by Hagen Hall then.
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