West Hartford Museum's Iconic Whale Needs Fiscal Help For Move

WEST HARTFORD, CT — As is obvious to anyone, moving a whale is neither easy nor cheap.

Which is why one pro-whale nonprofit organization has set up a GoFundMe page to raise an estimated $250,000 to move the iconic "Conny the Whale" at the former Children's Museum site in West Hartford across the street to a new home.

On Sept. 1, Cetacean Society International put up the GoFundMe page and is hoping to raise the cash to get the job done.

So far, there's a lot of work to be done as only $2,613 has been raised as of Wednesday afternoon.

CSI started out in 1974 as the Connecticut Cetacean Society, part of the whole "Save the Whales" movement that dominated the scene back then.

In 1976, the organization created "Conny," a 60-foot sperm whale model made out of concrete, and it stood for decades outside The Children's Museum's Trout Brook Drive location.

The sperm whale, after all, is the official state animal for Connecticut, something the state legislature decreed in 1975 due to the whale's historical links to state commerce and its endangered species status.

But these are changing times for the museum.

On Sept. 3, the museum officially left its longtime site on the campus of the private Kingsford-Oxford School on Trout Brook Drive.

The school is planning to sell the site to a developer who plans to build a large apartment building there.

But the museum isn't going away.

Sometime this fall, it will move into vacant space at the Emanuel Synagogue on Mohegan Drive in West Hartford on a temporary basis, something approved by the town's zoning board last month.

Meanwhile, the museum is mulling options regarding a new, permanent site.

As for "Conny," she cannot go with the museum and she is being relocated to become a centerpiece attraction to the Trout Brook Greenway hiking trail nearby.

If all goes well, "Conny" will be greeting hikers and mountain bikers on the popular trail.

It just needs a little fiscal push to do so.

For the GoFundMe page set up to save "Conny," click on this link.

For more information on Cetacean Society International, click on this link.

For more information on The Children's Museum, click on this link.

From Aug. 22: 'West Hartford Children's Museum's Future Slowly Evolves'