while my kids were in elementary school my wife was heavily involved in the PTA and school board and worked with the teacheres on puting together curriculam, particularly computer stuff (which I do) and the space program. We used to go down to Florida alot (we discovered annual passes to Disneyworld... don't ask (g)) and we'd almost always go over ot the Kennedy Space Center and go to the Teachers center. If you brought your own blank VHS tapes or 35 mm film they'd let you make copies of their material for class room use. They built an amazing science program around the stuff we brought back. It's been about 10 years now and they've dropped most of that and the teachers involved have moved on or retired. I would have given my collection to them, but I'm afraid the new folks would say "thanks but no thanks."
Huntsville is about 4 hours from here and we used to visit at least once a year. I've often thought they might have a place for some of my stuff.
Huntsville is where I met (shook hands with and got a book signed by) Buzz Aldrin, as well as seeing the rest of the Apollo 11 crew. That was the 20th anniversary of their mission. A friend and I went to the adult space camp there, along with a group we put together through the old Space Forum on Compuserve. One of the guys on my team was an IBM contractor who worked on the Shuttle GPC computers, reviewing the code. We even had Jesco Von Putkamer, just retired from NASA headquarters, volunteer to be available to answer questions online if anything come up. Fun memory.
What a treat to have been involved like that. I never met the Apollo 11 crew, WOW. I used to work at the Cape. What struck me was just how run down it was. I used to walk out to the old pads at night and think back to the days of the hustle and bustle when we were striving to do what mankind had never done before. I am in awe still that I am privileged to work with the space program.
I wish we could bring back that old fire that so caught up this nation.