Warren Rotary supports sci-fi museum
WARREN — The Rotary Club of Warren presented the Trumbull County Historical Society with a check for $4,000 for the Museum of Science Fiction and Fantasy Arts, the start of a commitment of at least $75,000 toward the project by its members.
The $4,000 check represents the first year of a five-year, $20,000 pledge as a member of the museum’s Genesis Club, a founders circle for early supporters who donate $5,000 for one year or $20,000 over five years.
In addition to the donation at Wednesday’s Rotary meeting at Trumbull Country Club, Rotary members individually have pledged an additional $55,000 toward the museum, and Rotary member Julia Wetstein said their goal is to reach $100,000 total.
“The Rotary is such an embedded institution in Warren and has helped so many important community causes along the way,” said TCHS Executive Director Meghan Reed. “That is exactly what our hope was when we founded the Genesis Club, that groups like Rotary will come forward and join us in getting such a significant project off the ground.”
Warren native John Zabrucky, a 1965 Warren G. Harding High School graduate, founded Modern Props, which created props that appeared in hundreds of films and television series from 1977 until 2020.
In 2023, Zabrucky donated more than 500 of those props to TCHS for the creation of a museum in his hometown.
TCHS purchased a building at 410 Main Ave. SW that will be the site of the museum, and hired Hickok Cole, a Washington, D.C., architectural firm responsible for the International Spy Museum, for the building renovation, and New York City-based Thinc Design for the exhibit design.