A crowd of residents turned out to check out the aliens, listen to music and eat some food at the opening of the Aliens Among Us exhibition at the Craig Park Heritage Museum on the weekend.
The exhibition aims to educate on alien species in the natural environment and had pictures, models and skeletons of the aliens for people to peruse and read about.
Pauline Rafferty, CEO of the Royal BC Museum (RBCM), addressed the crowd, saying the museum wanted to be the catalyst in this town and others to get people talking about invasive species.
“We always think when we say invasive species that it must be something big or it must be something we haven’t heard of. But it’s little things like English ivy or Scotch broom or the American bullfrog, all of those things cause issues for us.”
She said the RBCM was passionate about having the exhibition travel, which is why they raised over $250,000 from donors to do so. Parksville was the first stop and a good spot to “iron out the bugs” of the exhibition, she said.
Acting Mayor of Parksville Chris Burger also spoke, grateful for the relationship between the RBCM and the Parksville Museum, and cut the ribbon to welcome the exhibit with Rafferty and fellow councillors Al Grier and Carrie Powell-Davidson.
The Ballenas jazz program was there to entertain and finger food and cake was supplied by Galloping Gourmet.
The show runs until August 7 at the Craig Park Heritage Museum. For more information about the Museum visit www.parksvillemuseum.ca.