By By BETTY MITCHELL GRAY
Staff Writer
AURORA – A new part of the Aurora Fossil Museum was dedicated Friday and named in honor of one of the museum’s longest-serving volunteers, who is also one of the town’s and Beaufort County’s leading citizens.
The Grace H. Bonner Learning Resource Center, named for Grace Bonner, long-time chairwoman of the Aurora Fossil Museum Board of Directors, houses an education center and will attract revolving exhibits that, museum officials said, will lead to more educational offerings and bring more visitors to the community.
The ceremony came as museum volunteers are working to establish the fossil museum as a satellite of the N.C. Museum of Natural Science, a move, supporters say, that will increase the fossil museum’s visibility across the state. Museum volunteers hope to finalize that relationship within a year.
The center, located across Main Street from the original Aurora Fossil Museum, was dedicated Friday night with an opening ceremony and reception attended by about 75 civic leaders and Bonner’s friends.
“Grace Bonner has worked diligently to help us over the last 30 years,” said Museum Director Andrea Stilley in an interview before the dedication. “We wanted to show our appreciation for all that she has done.”
Besides serving as chairperson of the museum board for more than 30 years, Bonner is also the longest-serving mayor of Aurora in the town’s history – holding that post for a record 24 years. She was the first woman to serve as president of the Washington — Beaufort County Chamber of Commerce, is an active member of the Beaufort County Committee of 100 and serves on the Beaufort County Community College Foundation Board of Directors. In recognition of her many years of volunteer service to the state, Bonner has been a recipient of the Order of the Longleaf Pine, one of the highest honors given to a North Carolinian.
In remarks Friday night, Bonner said she was humbled and proud to have the center named in her honor.
“There are many people who have worked on the fossil museum over the years, I just happen to have been here the longest,” she said. “You have made this a very special night for me.”
Donations from local businesses and the help of volunteer labor converted a former flower shop that had been sitting empty for several years into the new center in about seven months. Those businesses cited by Bonner on Friday night included Southern Bank, Wachovia Bank, First South Bank, Progress Energy, Embarq, Minges Bottling Group, the Beaufort County Committee of 100, the Golden Leaf Foundation, Impressions Marketing Group, Tri-County Communications, the Town of Aurora, Potash Corp. of Aurora and the Friends of the Museum.
Stilley recognized three volunteers who played a pivotal role in the project – Maria Gerber, Curtis Ormond and Sandy Shelton.
The 1,000 square-foot center includes display cabinets and open areas that the museum will use to house rotating exhibits and operate a calender of special events throughout the year. The renovations also include a new parking area that features improved handicapped access to the museum, Stilley said.
The total cost of the project was still being compiled Friday.
The Aurora Fossil Museum was founded in 1976 to educate museum-goers about the geology and paleontology of the coastal plains of North Carolina. The museum was owned and operated by the Town of Aurora until 1999, when it was transferred to the non-profit Aurora Fossil Museum Foundation, with Bonner as chairperson. In 2002, the museum began its Friends of the Museum program, which has grown to include a nationwide membership that helps raise money for the museum and provides a pool of volunteers. The museum’s fossil pile, dubbed the “Pit of the Pungo,” is an unlimited source of Miocene age fossils – including the remains of ancient sharks, whales, fish, corals and shells. The museum has a wide variety of Pleistocene, Pliocene and Miocene marine fossils on display. Most displays feature specimens collected from the local Potash Corp. of Aurora mine.