The much-anticipated solar eclipse that created so much buzz around the country is officially over. In some parts of the country, the sky darkened and the moon seemed to consume the sun.
Milwaukee experienced a much more modest show, but that didn’t stop a plaza full of people on the east side from reveling in what we got, including Cherise Easley.
When the school principal found out she could give her Kindergarten through 3rd graders a taste of the eclipse and the experience was free, she immediately sent home permission slips.
“The scholars were just super excited, just super excited. Can you imagine a four-year-old going home and talking to their mom about the solar eclipse and what’s going to happen? I hope I have a future astronaut. I hope that we inspire the person who will discover that we can live on another planet,” Easley says.
Inside UW-Milwaukee’s Union Easley’s students joined a long line of people waiting for free protective glasses.
The local special effects artist Anna Thaney offered free cheek painting. “What do you want me to paint on your cheek: a star, a heart, the sun,” Thaney asks a young child perched before her.
Across the room, Leman Tatli was deciding what to do first from all the activities with her nearly four-year-old son. Watch a live stream from NASA or perhaps make galaxy slime.
Tatli says she learned about the eclipse gathering on the internet. Her family moved here from Turkey just three months ago. “Of course, it’s so interesting. And also, we are wondering about the eclipse. We just arrived to see from the outside to campus,” Tatli says.
UWM Manfred Olson Planetarium assistant director Victoria Robison asks the crowd to move outside to safely take in the eclipse.
Victoria Robison looked around the room in amazement. She is one of two UWM Planetarium staff members in charge of this.
“Everyone else besides Jean (Creighton) and me are student staff members, all UWM students, and they are all are leading different parts of this event. It would not be possible without them,” Robison says.
It was also Robison’s first eclipse. “And for really little kids, this kind of thing really gets them jazzed about space and the cosmos and curious, which can lead to curiosity about lots of other things,” Robison says.
Getting closer to 2 pm Robison picked up her megaphone to urge people to move outside to the plaza.
She also bared the unfortunate news they had run out of protective eye gear. They had given away 10,000 pairs. “I suggest that you make a new friend and share. Find someone, introduce yourselves, become best friends, and share your glasses,” Robison announces.
Outside, student Janet Bebo is among the people filling nearly every inch of the the plaza. Bebo’s first eclipse was a wholly different experience in 2017.
“I was driving a kitten down to my mom’s friend in Kansas City. I forgot the eclipse was happening that day. All of a sudden it got dark. We pulled over onto an overpass along with a bunch of other cars and we got to look after it reached totality and it was so cool. This is way more people than the last time I watched the eclipse,” Bebo says.
Nearby Marilyn Goris Wiseman is sharing the glasses someone shared with her. As thrilling as even a partial eclipse might be, Wiseman is moved by the humanity around her.
"It’s nice to see such a gathering of people when we’re so divisive right now about stuff. These kind of things that bring people together is good,” Wiseman says.
And then, for a moment, the excited buzz that’s filled the air reached a brief crescendo. The eclipse has reached its climax.
Maybe it takes the cosmos to remind us we’re part of something much bigger than ourselves.
Sheri Williams Pannell is drinking it all in with her husband of 40 years. She’s a UWM professor, “In the theater department — the musical theater program, and to me, this is nature’s performance. This is a performance from nature. So we applaud we give a standing ovation,” Williams Pannell says.
