Recently, the Da Vinci Science Center in Allentown hosted a “Space Party” in honor of Abigail Zukowski’s birthday, an 11-year-old girl from Emmaus who was fatally struck by a car in 2015 while walking home from school. Abbie would have turned 15 this year.

This was the second annual event that brought out more than 500 attendees from far and wide across state lines.

The event’s theme captured Abbie’s love of astronomy with featured activity stations for all ages. Adults and kids alike honored Abbie by exploring a replica of the solar system with high powered telescopes donated by the Lehigh Valley Amateur Astronomical Society.

Kids walked on the surface of Mars in a virtual reality experience and a touching and special tribute was paid to Abbie at the AbbieRock painting room, where participants painted rocks with special tribute messages to Abbie, an artistic phenomenon that’s gone international.

Rock painting was started by Abbie but became an international sensation when Abbie’s mom, Lisa Zukowski and her friend began putting Abbie’s photos and messages on rocks including Abbie’s Memorial Facebook page information and hiding them in local areas. The rocks were found by strangers who would then learn of Abbie’s story and would move the rocks to different areas around town. Lisa Zukowski eventually began receiving messages and photos from people who found the rocks in places like New Mexico, the Grand Canyon, Croatia and the United Kingdom. There were even AbbieRocks that made it to NASA’s space camps with permission from NASA by way of a teacher in New Mexico. The rocks have touched so many people around the world and continue to keep Abbie’s memory alive.

Kate Heflin, Space Party organizer for the Da Vinci Science Center, said, “When I brought the idea of having Abbie’s party to [the Science Center] everyone was in full support of it immediately. They told me to do it bigger.”

Abbie had her 11th birthday party at the Da Vinci Center and, after learning this fact, the staff at Da Vinci thought it would be most appropriate to have an event in her honor.

This year was the second year for the event and it expanded to include a sleepover at the science center attended by 135 kids and families. Partial proceeds of the event will go to the Abigail Zukowski Memorial Scholarship Fund to benefit college-bound students currently attending Emmaus High School.

In 2018, the event raised over $1,000.

“My main goal for the event is for Abbie to be remembered and for people to feel like they know her,” Lisa Zukowski said. “Every parent thinks their child is amazing, but it was the outreach of complete strangers telling me how much Abbie has affected their lives that has made me realize the stars shine a bit more brightly with her in the sky and the days here are much more dull without her…”

To donate to the Abigail Zukowski Memorial Fund visit Gofundme.com/Abbie-Zukowski-Memorial-Scholarship.