Aggregate Industries US Partners with Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History for Festival on Rocks and Geology

WALTHAM, Mass., Sept. 26, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Aggregate Industries US (AIUS), a Holcim Group Company, is pleased to announce its partnership with the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History's Rock On! A Family Festival on Rocks and Geology, an educational event about geology. The event features different activities about rocks and minerals on the Earth and in the solar system.

AIUS is gifting a unique rock, rodingite, that is found in one of its local quarries.  Rodingite is a rare rock composed of mostly garnet and other calcium silicates.

"As part of the community local to Washington, DC," said Vince Bush, senior vice president, Aggregate Industries US Mid-Atlantic Region, "we are honored to support the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and their effort to educate those that visit the Museum about the importance of rocks."

The Rock On! Family Festival is free and open to the public. Visitors can participate in events like "cement it now" to learn how cement becomes a rock, "celestial comets," where they can make a model of a comet, and see the exhibition Against All Odds: Rescue at the Chilean Mine, an exhibition detailing the rescue of 33 Chilean miners in 2010.

The festival takes place on Saturday, September 29 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, located at 10th Street & Constitution Avenue, NW. There will be giveaways including geology postcards, rocks, and geology helmets.  Visitors will also have the opportunity to make marbleized paper using patterns from metamorphic rocks. The National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association (NSSGA) is sponsoring the event.

About Aggregate Industries US
Aggregate Industries US is a leading provider of aggregate and construction materials to markets in 18 states and 300 cities.

About the National Museum of Natural History
The National Museum of Natural History, located at 10th Street and Constitution Avenue N.W., Washington, D.C., is open every day from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. with extended evening hours in the summer. Admission is free.

SOURCE Aggregate Industries