It’s as if the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree had fixed up a date for Bearfest between the Wrangell community and a team from the Center of Science and Industry, based in Columbus, Ohio.

Claire Froelich, an education specialist with the U.S. Forest Service in Wrangell, accompanied the Zarembo Island tree on its journey across the country last November. The caravan showed off the spruce tree at several stops on their way to Washington, D.C.

“They knew we were coming through (Columbus),” Froehlich said of the staff at the nonprofit education center, which goes by the acronym COSI and has been working for six decades to promote interest in science, technology, engineering, art and math.

“I told them all about Wrangell,” she said of her opportune meeting on the Christmas tree stopover.

“I kept on talking and chatting with them after the Christmas tree,” Froehlich said of their common interests in education and careers.

COSI and the U.S. Forest Service entered into a partnership about a year ago, focused on promoting forestry careers, said Sara Leikin, the nonprofit’s senior director of partnerships, who will be among the team coming to Wrangell.

The science center staff is traveling to several national forests this year, but Wrangell is the only one in Alaska on the schedule, Leikin said.

Froehlich had told them about the Wrangell students who were working with the Forest Service to install remote video cameras at the Anan Wildlife Observatory, so that anyone anywhere in the world can watch the bears go after salmon for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

COSI sent some of their education kits to Wrangell and then decided to send themselves.

A team of six people will help out at Bearfest events this week. “I will be taking them to Anan,” Froehlich said. “None of them have ever been to Alaska.”

In addition to their forestry kit which focuses on careers, the COSI team will bring along their snow kit for Wrangell kids. “It’s all about snow,” and was developed with help from the University of Alaska, Leikin said.

The team is scheduled for a presentation on the first day of Bearfest, at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 30, at the Nolan Center. They will “brief us on who they are and why they decided that Wrangell is a great place to invest in our youth,” according to the event schedule. “COSI is all about science, learning and fun while investing in the future.”

The team will talk with kids and hand out science kits at 11:30 a.m. Thursday, July 31, at the Irene Ingle Public Library. “The main focus is on the forest and the magic it creates.”

They will help with kids games, scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday, Aug. 1, on the Nolan Center lawn.

On the last day of Bearfest on Sunday, Aug. 2, the COSI squad will staff aid stations for the marathon run.

The full schedule of events is available at alaskabearfest.org.

COSI operates out of a 320,000-square-foot center in Columbus, with interactive exhibits, galleries and a planetarium, counting more than 300,000 student visitors a year. They stepped up their travel and outreach efforts nationwide after the COVID-19 pandemic cut into attendance at the center, Leikin said.