Jurassic Jo's Dinos is a Maine-based children's edu-tainment company that has focused on making educational programs accessible and fun for students of all needs and abilities since 2021. We currently offer two different educational shows: a large-scale musical about dinosaurs (that won Broadway World Maine's Best TYA show for 2024!) and a smaller show for school assemblies that focuses on the history of fossils and how “even scientists can make mistakes and learn from them”. We also provide our services to libraries, schools, museums, and other educational institutions. We would love to move beyond the Cretaceous period and into the Pliocene! Adding this new show to our lineup will offer us an opportunity to teach Maine kids about natural history, climate, human impact on wildlife, and (using theater magic) give kids the opportunity to meet a baby Mammoth and a baby Smilodon. We are seeking $4,000 to fund the construction of two new puppets, purchase real fossils for the children to be able to touch, and other minor production costs for the show.

The addition of these two new puppets will allow us to engage our community in a whole new era of natural history. Our shows teach science, natural history, and empathy, while emphasizing our responsibility to take care of our planet and its wildlife.

In 2026 alone, we have done 17 museum visits, 11 classroom visits, 6 library visits, and partnered with 10 nonprofit organizations, including the Center for Wildlife, the YMCA, and Adaptive Outdoor Education Center. The addition of these two new puppets will allow us to engage our community in a whole new era of natural history.

Although our dino programs are very popular, Maine has no dinosaur fossil discoveries. We do, however, have fossil evidence that Mammoths lived in Maine. We would love to use this opportunity to create stories about an animal that lived here thousands of years ago. This will not only engage our community in Maine art, but also in Maine's natural history.

We are happy to work with businesses for sponsorship opportunities that can be included in marketing for the show. We are also pledging several shows that will be completely free to the public as a thank you for any donations we receive.