Making Paracord Bracelets at Mystic Aquarium's 2nd Annual Spirit Week

We were invited to participate in the second annual Mystic Spirit Week at the Mystic Aquarium last weekend. Matt and the Mystic Knotwork crew had a great time helping visitors make lots of paracord bracelets.

What's Spirit Week?

We asked Ainslie Seeber, Events & Partnerships Marketing Manager of the Mystic Aquarium, to tell us more about herself and about Spirit Week.

What do you do at the Aquarium?

I plan and oversee all marketing events throughout the year that provide fun and new experiences for our guests and members, in addition to the exhibits and experiences already offered here at the Aquarium.

Tell us about Mystic Spirit Week. How and when did it start and what is the goal?

Mystic Spirit Week kicked off last April over school vacation weeks. It is incredibly important for Mystic Aquarium to be a strong partner in our community- a community that makes us really proud. Inviting local businesses to meet our guests, was the perfect way to showcase what makes Mystic and Southeastern CT great.

Mystic is more than just a tourist attraction, we are home to a lot of great people, organizations, and businesses. The goal was to bring fun activities, entertainment and demonstrations here to the Aquarium so our guests could learn about our community with the hope that they will continue to explore Mystic after their Aquarium visit. Mystic Spirit Week also allows us to showcase the conservation efforts that we undertake locally each and every day. We host stations on campus that provide guests the opportunity to get hands-on with the goal of educating them about protecting our local environment and the ocean planet.

How many local businesses were involved this year? How many visitors did you have?

This year we had 12 local businesses and organizations participate, including Mystic Knotwork, Denison Pequot Nature Center, Mashantucket Pequot Museum, Mystic Hilton, Sticky Situations, Alice in the Village, Fred Astaire Dance Studio, Mystic Noank Library, Stonington Police Department, Old Mystic Fire Department, Mystic River Ambulance and the Eastern CT Symphony Orchestra. We also had 7 local singer/songwriters for live performances each day. We estimate that we had about 28,000 guests between Wednesday 4/12 & Wednesday 4/19.

Can you tell us about some of the highlights of Mystic Spirit Week? Did anything unexpected happen?

For me it was, the reaction of our beluga whales, Juno and Kela, to the Eastern CT Symphony Orchestras Trombone Quartet.

Is there anything else you’d like to tell us about Spirit Week or the Aquarium?

We are happy to host such a fun event that really brings to life everything Mystic has to offer. The Aquarium not only loves to share our mission of protecting our ocean planet through conservation, education, and research, but we also love to offer, with the help of our friends, unique and fun entertainment and experiences you can only find in Mystic.

Do you have any other events coming up?

• 3rd Annual Food Truck Rally - May 19 & 20
• Carnaval del Sol - June 3 - a kick-off to summer with dance performances & live entertainment from a variety of cultures around the world. 
• Seals on the Rocks - July 26 - the annual fundraiser for the Seal Rescue Clinic that includes cocktails, light fare, and live music.

You can find more information about these events and more at www.mysticaquarium.org.

Make Your Own Paracord Bracelet

If you weren't able to join us at Spirit Week, you can still make your own paracord bracelet. Download our Free Paracord Bracelet Instructions (you can print the pdf and use for your own teaching but please keep our logos on each page). We've also got some videos of Matt that will show you how to do it yourself.

 Let us know if you make your own bracelets, we want to see them!