Baltimore Sun pages have been filled the past few days with stories about the great fun that folks of all ages had or will soon have at Maryland Science Center.

Jonathan Pitts had a blast at the annual daytime New Years Eve celebration Midnight Noon, which featured the famous kid-friendly rock of the Baltimore-based Milkshake. Read his review here, as well as Kate Shatzkin’s preview.

On Tuesday, the Maryland Science Center kicked off its IMAX Film Festival, featuring 7 IMAX Favorites and reduced ticket prices. CEO Van Reiner walked Sun movie critic Michael Sragow through the repertoire.

Meredith Cohn also posted at the Sun’s B’more Green blog about the Festival as well as about the upcoming Galileo Nights programs.

(Once again, one of Baltimore’s premier destinations gets the credit it deserves!)

One of our New Year’s resolutions is to get healthy. We’re on our way.

We are excited to have been selected to promote the inaugural Indy Health Expo in January in Indianapolis. Our roster of consumer show clients continues to grow.

The mission of the Maryland Science Center is to make science education fun and accessible through informal, interactive experiences.  And it has found yet another way to do just that through a partnership with Maryland Family magazine that provide families with science activities they can do at home.

Kitchen Sink Science is a monthly feature on Maryland Family’s website that provides safe, easy, and fun ways to explore science though simple experiments that can be performed using everyday household items.  The website features a different experiment each month, and the activities are appropriate for a wide range of ages.  This month’s feature is about bending light.

People have been fascinated by Leonardo Da Vinci – not only for the past 600 years, but for the past two months, since “Da Vinci—The Genius: A Traveling Exhibit” opened at the Maryland Science Center.  Interest in this fascinating exploration of the great thinker’s creative process grows, most evident by this past weekend’s fantastic attendance – 48% percent more visitors over Thanksgiving weekend 2009 than last year’s holiday weekend.  Perhaps it had something to do with another fascinating exploration – the cover story of last Friday’s Washington Post Weekend section.

We like our clients to be in the spotlight, but twice in the past week, the spotlight has been on us. Todd Scott and I both shared our insights about public relations with some interested students.

Todd participated in Career Day at a local high school.

At the Maryland Institute College of Art, I met with students from the school’s Exhibition Development Seminar class. Over the course of a year, the students curate their own exhibition, from concept to installation, and also promote it. Using real world experiences from Himmelrich PR’s work for the Contemporary Museum, I explained the process for promoting an exhibition – online and traditional media, long and short leads, media previews to opening night.

We were happy to share our good work and good thinking with a new generation of budding PR professionals.

Congratulations to the Maryland Science Center, for being part of the Industry Partnership Award presented at last week’s Maryland Tourism and Travel Summit. The Science Center was recognized along with the National Aquarium, Visit Baltimore and the Waterfront Partnership for the great success of the Waterfront Invasion, which promoted Chinasaurs at the Science Center, Jellies at the National Aquarium and family-friendly events that packed the Inner Harbor throughout the summer. We encourage cooperation and partnerships, and are pleased to have had the opportunity to promote them through this successful program.

Congratulations to Jenn Kampmeier, founder of Bebe Paluzza Productions who received The Expo Group’s Show Manager of the Year Award (the “SMOTY”) at the Award’s 10th anniversary gala last night in Houston. This well-deserved honor recognizes Jenn’s innovative practices, premier customer service, commitment to success, and ability to overcome obstacles in the trade show industry. We are excited to be helping Jenn expand her shows in the Midwest in 2010, with expos in Chicago, Denver, Des Moines, Indianapolis and Austin (Midwest… mid Texas… same difference.)

We are pleased to announce an exciting addition to the Himmelrich team. Katie Dill will be responsible for project management and coordination, focusing on the growing number of consumer shows and arts/entertainment venues that we promote. Most recently, Katie coordinated marketing initiatives for a Baltimore publication.  Welcome Katie.

Forget the candy and bring on the crafts!  Over Halloween weekend, it seemed as though all of Central New Jersey was at the 15th annual Sugarloaf Crafts Festival in Somerset! The doors opened on Friday to a waiting crowd and  the show was packed throughout the day, setting the pace for the entire weekend.

Sugarloaf received “shining” media coverage for its ruby anniversary in the Garden State in The Daily Record, Home News Tribune, Star Ledger, Burlington County Times and Courier News. New York’s FOX 5 featured Sugarloaf on Good Day New York, not to mention the dozens of bloggers that spread the word about Sugarloaf online!

Now on to Philadelphia for this week’s Sugarloaf Crafts Festival!

One of the great things about a career in public relations is that you get to work with recognizable people.  Getting to work closely with them, whether it’s a governor or celebrity or the Ravens’ defense, you get an experience that few people are lucky enough to have.

Over the last week, I had the privilege of working with one of the most recognizable people on the planet, and to hear him referred to, affectionately, as “the Boss.”

Not Springsteen.

Not George Steinbrenner.

But Mickey Mouse.

As we helped Disney with its “Give A Day, Get a Day” volunteer service promotion in Baltimore, hearing the professionals that represent Mickey call him “the Boss” was a treat.  The culture of reverence that permeates everything that was done, from scheduling interviews with local media to rallying the public on street corners to visiting children in the hospital, made even the most basic tasks important and unified the team members.  It was very cool to be a part of that, if even for only a little while.

So as I crossed another celebrity name off the list of people I’d like to work with, I’m getting closer to my goal of working with The Donald.  I’m just not sure anymore if it’s Trump or Duck.