Calvin News

The folks organizing the Petra: Lost City of Stone exhibition at Calvin College plan to have a little fun with a couple of upcoming holidays.

In honor of the July 4 holiday anyone named George and anyone born on the fourth of July will get free admission to Petra that day.

Also, all day on July 4 there will be special red, white and blue popsicles available to Petra guests free of charge to celebrate the day.

And, on Friday, July 1, in honor of Canada Day, anyone with a Canadian birth certificate or Canadian passport will be allowed to attend the Petra exhibition at no charge.

Petra Steering Committee member Joel Zwart is the on-site curator for Petra and he says the special offers are intended to make a holiday weekend even more fun for potential Petra guests.

"Since Petra is open on the fourth of July we decided to have some fun with it," says Zwart. "We figured it would be kind of cool to do some different things to draw attention to the fact that people can come to Petra on July 4."

And the Canadian twist?

Well Zwart is himself a native of Canada and Bert de Vries, the director of Calvin's archaeology minor and a key Petra player, also hails from the northern neighbour to the U.S.

But Zwart says those weren't the main reasons for the Petra tip of the hat to Canada Day.

"We definitely have a Canadian presence at Calvin with the Petra exhibition," says Zwart, "but probably the biggest reason we wanted to salute Canada Day is that after Petra leaves Calvin in mid-August its next two stops will be Calgary and Ottawa. So letting Canadians into Petra for free on Canada Day is simply a nice way to acknowledge that after Calvin the Petra exhibit will find a home in Canada."