Northeast Georgia Science Symposium, NE GA Science Symposium

06/05/2026

Woo-HOO!! Hand Me Down Zoo is offering TOURS!! Sa-WEET!!

Join us for a fun day on the wild side. We will have a tours and encounters available for Thursday and Friday of this week!!

Thursday June 4th:
Tours 10, 12, 2 & 4
Encounters 11, 12, 1, 2 & 3

Friday June 5th:
Tours 10, 12, 2 & 4
Encounters 11, 12, 1, 2 & 3

Mini encounters include our possums, ferrets, hedgehogs, chinchillas and mongoose! It’s more fuzzy fun in 30 mins than you’ll get anywhere!!!

If you would like to hop on an encounter please send a text to 706-429-4591 with name, date, time and guest numbers so we can get you booked. Tours you just need to be at the property 10-15 mins prior to start time for check in. You don’t need to RSVP for tours.

Tours are $10 per person with children under 2 free
Mini encounter is $25 per person (all guests)

feed bags for $2.

1056 hwy 211 nw
Winder ga 30680

Please use the gravel driveway at the zoo sign. Park in the grass area and come up the sidewalk for check in.

We take cash, card, Cash App, Zelle and Venmo for payment at check in.
🐕🐈🐾 🐾❤️ 🐾❤️❤️🐾

06/05/2026

Live jelly cam!!! So cool!!

Get an up-close look at the delicate sea nettles in our Open Sea exhibit. Watch our sea nettles as their long tentacles and lacey mouth-arms move smoothly th...

04/21/2026

We had planned a Menopause Panel for May. (We’ve been working on a Menopause presentation for TWO years!! )

Unfortunately, we have been unable to locate enough professionals willing to speak who specialize in Women’s Health to form a Panel.

Our May 3rd Thursday will be cancelled.

If YOU know of a professional specializing in Women’s Health/ Menopause, please let us know!!

Women have told us they want to hear about - The Stages and Phases of Menopause, Bioidentical Hormones, Aesthetic Changes, Exercise or other activities to help.

We would like to hear from - Medical professionals, Natural professionals, Aestheticians, etc.

03/19/2026

The Hand Me Down Zoo is our petting zoo of choice during the Symposium. Kerry brings such interesting and happy animals with her.
Do you know why it’s called the Hand Me Down Zoo?

Kerry is a licensed rehab and exotics owner. She rescues animals from Craigslist and FB Marketplace, etc. She has an entire zoo comprised of salvaged, “second-hand” animals.
That’s one of the main reasons we LOVE the Hand Me Down Zoo - Kerry can tell us all the stories as well as all the animal nerd information. We LOVE all the information!!

As “Animal Season” is upon us, the increase in wild animal postings is increasing.

Here’s Kerry blowing her fuse, for good cause:

🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬PSA🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬

I’m going to step on my Wildlife petalstool for a minute so bear with us. This is especially important since our Wildlife season is coming on full swing. I get tagged and linked and sent these social media posts by the dozens!!!! I’m not mad that someone is seeking help for these babies. They NEED help. Here’s the issue. See the language used??!!?? They are asking for ANYONE to come and take them. They don’t need just anyone. They need a LICENSED (again for everyone in the back of the classroom) LICENSED REHABBER to take them. If you are posting these things and giving these animals to Joe Schmo, Jane Doe etc because they miss their illegal pet that died last year (usually to poor care) and they have everything already or because they are the local Snow White that saves all the little angels…. Blah blah blah…. Then you are WRONG!!! YOU ARE THE PROBLEM!!! These babies need a person educated and trained, with a vet care plan in case they need meds from a vet with a LICENSE so they aren’t destroyed later for illegal ownership.

If you are the person giving these babies to that random guy you are just as bad as the person illegally rehabbing. There is a whole law code here in Georgia all about it.
Trafficking in protected species (O.C.G.A. Title 27)
GA Code(27-3-130 et seq)
(3.91-4-16.06)

LOOK THEM UP!!!!! Some are felony others are misdemeanors. But they all count. Why do I care? Because I have to see the broken bodies suffering with paralysis from metabolic bone disease that I can’t fix. I have to deal with animals that are terrified because their whole world just went upside down after getting caught. I have to make the hard choice to put an animal down because of neurological issues from displacement or bad care. I have to be cussed out by the previous owner because they are mad when they were the ones IN THE WRONG.

Stop being lazy. If you want to help transport these animals to a licensed rehabber. Reach out to the Wildlife network. They can often get transport provided. Hell we help transport if our day allows for it. If you can’t do that much then let nature do what nature does. It’s unfortunate and sad but in the end that baby animal is much better off long term being eaten by a coyote or snake and providing a possibly desperately needed meal to another animal then it is in the care of someone not properly educated or trained illegally.

I’m sure many will find that to be cruel but I see hundreds of cases a year and all the graphic and heart crushing moments that result from illegal ownership. You’re not helping you’re being SELFISH and unkind to a wild animal. If you need proof come meet 80% of the 400 animals that call us home. Hear their stories and how they just barely made it here in time and still years later see the now life long impacts of “love”. Selfish misguided reckless ignorant LOVE. Animals need respect and freedom and peace from people. Let’s help them have that and do the right thing this year. Let’s stop loving animals and start respecting them. Please share to all your friends and family and groups.

Vent complete

🙏

03/15/2026

WOW!! THANK YOU to all our attendees!! Over 300 of you came to visit us today!!

Thank you to our Sponsors for funding all the AMAZING things we did today- oobleck, SO MANY animals from the Hand Me Down Zoo, mini horses from Daydream Animal Sanctuary, PIE!!

Thank you to Rockwell Lodge for hosting the Wreck-A-Wreck Destructo car!! SO COOL!!

THANK YOU to all of our AMAZING Volunteers!! Without YOU this would NOT be possible. THANK YOU!!

We plan to see you next year!

03/14/2026

We Blow Stuff Up ALL Day!
This is it! Today is THE day!! Happy Pi Day!! (3.14)
We’re going to BLOW STUFF UP!!
5210 Railroad Ave., Flowery Branch, GA 30542

4-8pm (Final VERY LOUD Explosion)
Blow Stuff Up ALL Day!!
+ live animals (miniature horses and Hand Me Down Zoo)
+ Wreck-A-Wreck Destructo Car hosted by Rockwell Masons
+ AWESOME Science Vendors (We LOVE Nerds!!)

+
4-6pm Fair sponsored by Turning Point USA Rise

+
5:30pm Dog Training Demo Circle

+
6-8pm Instrument Petting Zoo

+
6:30pm Awards and T-Shirt Contest
Today’s theme is: Explosions!!

We’re going to have SO MUCH FUN!!

11/06/2025

When you study the Hisotry of Sugar, it’s revelatory.
The link to the full story is posted in the original Comments.

Sweet Deception: The Framing of Fluoride

How the Kellogg Foundation helped turn a dietary crisis into a chemical solution - by Bruce Lanphear

The House That Sugar Built

In 1930, Will Keith Kellogg, the breakfast-cereal magnate, endowed a new philanthropic institution with a simple mission: to promote the health and happiness of children. Like many industrialists of his time, he believed that the wealth created by modern business should serve the public good. The W.K. Kellogg Foundation was born from that ideal, funded by stock in the company that still bears his name.

Nearly a century later, that relationship endures. The Foundation’s trust remains one of the largest shareholders in the Kellogg Company—now split into Kellanova (snacks) and WK Kellogg Co (cereals). The dividends from those shares sustain one of the world’s largest charitable foundations, supporting programs in early childhood, food security, and public health.

But the Foundation’s history reveals a deeper paradox—one that raises uncomfortable questions about how philanthropy, industry, and science can become entangled in shaping public health itself.