The Pensacola MESS Hall is a hands on

science museum A science museum is a museum devoted primarily to science. Older science museums tended to concentrate on static displays of objects related to natural history, paleontology, geology, industry and industrial machinery, etc. Modern trends in mu ...

located in downtown

Pensacola, Florida Pensacola () is the westernmost city in the Florida Panhandle, and the county seat and only incorporated city of Escambia County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 54,312. Pensacola is the principal ...

founded in 2012 by Megan Pratt and Jerry Pratt. The museum has

mess kit A mess kit is a collection of silverware and cookware used during camping and backpacking, as well as extended military campaigns. There are many varieties of mess kits available to consumers, and militaries commonly provide them to their troop ...

s and individual science activities with all of the materials needed to explore a concept. In addition, the MESS Hall has classes and camps. The camps have been awarded the

Pensacola News Journal The '' Pensacola News Journal'' is a daily morning newspaper serving Escambia and Santa Rosa counties in Florida. It is Northwest Florida's most widely read daily. The ''News Journal'' is owned by Gannett, a national media holding company th ...

's Best of the Bay award in 2016. Throughout the year, though primarily in the summer, the MESS Hall also holds a variety of workshops to delve deeper into science topics, from

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

s to kitchen chemistry. In 2014 the MESS Hall received an Impact 100 of Pensacola to fund the creation of an outreach program called MESS Hall Express. During 2016, these outreach programs were augmented by two grants. One, supported by

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

through a Creativity Garden grant, a nationwide project of the

Association of Science-Technology Centers The Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC) is a non-profit, global organization based in Washington, D.C., in the United States, that provides a collective voice, professional support, and programming opportunities for science cen ...

, brought the MESS Hall to a local school for Tinker-Explore-Create workshops five times during the school year. The other, funded through

GlaxoSmithKline GSK plc, formerly GlaxoSmithKline plc, is a British multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company with global headquarters in London, England. Established in 2000 by a merger of Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham. GSK is the ten ...

, brought Science in the Summer to local libraries and community centers The MESS Hall is a

501(c)3 A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of the 29 types of 50 ...

not-for-profit and relies on charitable contributions to cover some portion of its operating expenses. To increase support, the MESS Hall holds an annual MESS Hall Goes Gourmet gala fundraiser, supported in a large part by

Gulf Power Gulf Power Company (GPC) was a U.S. electric utility founded in 1925 and headquartered in Pensacola, Florida. It had over 450,000 customers in 10 counties and 71 towns in northwest Florida, and a generating capacity of 2.278 GW. GPC was founded ...

References

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External links

Official Website of the Pensacola MESS Hall
501(c)(3) organizations Association of Science-Technology Centers member institutions Pensacola, Florida Museums in Pensacola, Florida Museums established in 2012 2012 establishments in Florida