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Academy Hosts First Overnight for Adults, March 7, 2015

adultovernight308x206PHILADELPHIA (October 23, 2014) — Kids have been doing it at the museum since the mid-80s, and now adults can do it too. We’re talking about the first-ever adult overnight experience at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, where wearing pajamas in a museum got its start in this region.
On Saturday, March 7, adults 21 years and older are invited to bring their sleeping gear and sense of adventure for a night that will surely be described in family lore as “a break in the routine.” Check-in starts at 6:30 p.m., followed by a drink of beer or wine (limit is four drinks for the night), behind-the-scenes tours of the 18 million plant and animal specimens (don’t worry, you won’t see them all), and close encounters with some of the museum’s live scorpions, birds of prey, lizards—whatever happens to be awake.

Hear the tall but true tales about the beasts in the dioramas and the skeletons in the closets. A sci-fi movie will be shown at midnight, then it’s lights out under the meanest meat-eater that ever lived—T. rex, the one with the knife-like teeth.

No need to light a campfire; a hot dinner and hot breakfast will be served by 12th Street Catering. If by 9 a.m. on Sunday 15 hours in the museum isn’t enough, participants can enjoy free admission to see the Academy in daylight.

“Adults are no different than kids,” said Jill Sybesma, the Academy’s manager of adult and strategic programs. “They want to go behind the scenes with flashlights, stay up late watching a movie, hear our darkest ghost stories, and sleep under T. rex.”

The Adult Overnight is $165 for Academy members and $190 for nonmembers. For more information and to register, visit the Academy’s website at http://bit.ly/1FDIjLo.

The Academy has been hosting people in PJs since 1986 with the start of the Safari Overnight program for children. Since then, thousands of kids and their parents, scout groups and their chaperones, and others have enjoyed the experience.

The next overnight when kids are allowed is Saturday, Feb. 21, on the heels of the third installment in the “Night at the Museum” film franchise, which opens this December. For information about the family Safari Overnight, visit the Academy’s website at http://bit.ly/1t6GXDZ.