Kinetic energy was at an all-time high Friday when exuberant children cheered through a haze of colorful rubber balls raining upon them from Imagination Station’s two-story atrium.
Before the anticipated “Bouncing of the Balls” at 2:23 p.m. — in honor of the new year, 2023 — Pippa Austin, 8, of Curtice, Ohio, said, “I feel so excited, and it’s going to be so amazing!”
That excitement spread among many other families present to watch 23,000 “super balls” drop 40 feet inside the downtown Toledo science museum, followed by a brief bout of mayhem below as children scrambled to collect the rubber orbs.
“It was fun seeing all of them dropping at the same time,” Jensyn Meyer, 7, of Bowling Green, said after the event’s conclusion.
Jensyn and her father, Brad Meyer, 45, braved the atrium’s ground level at the risk of being hit from any and all directions by the bouncing balls as children rushed in.
“The anticipation of 23,000 balls all falling all at once was real fun,” Mr. Meyer said as he supervised his daughter.
Amy Mohr, Imagination Station’s senior information officer, estimated this year’s event, its sixth annual super-ball drop, attracted about 1,000 people.
“This is one of our biggest events of the year,” Ms. Mohr said. “There's nothing like this!”
It was the museum’s first ball drop since the coronavirus pandemic at which no reservations were required, which helped boost attendance.
Alysia Austin, 45, Pippa’s mom, said she was pleased with the Imagination Station’s focus on families and was eager to see more nonreservation events.
But the event also has begun to garner a following.
“The fun part is when it bounces all over the kids,” Khloe Oseneaugh, 8, of Oregon, said in anticipation of the superball drop, having attended the event two times before.
Khloe’s mother, Sue Oseneaugh, 58, loved the event and brought along Khloe’s younger brother, Roman Ramirez, 4, who was there for the first time.
“It's something that the kids can do, and it's fun, and it's free,” Ms. Oseneaugh said.
Other parents were equally pleased with the event’s all-ages appeal.
“I think it's a really like wholesome a family oriented event,” Ms. Austin said. “I think it also brings the community together as well.”
First Published December 30, 2022, 11:09 p.m.
