Four-year-old Brycen Milton’s meticulous eye for detail paid off when he won a coloring contest in 2013 sponsored by those seeking to start a children’s museum in Lewis County. As a reward, during the grand opening of a pilot museum at the Twin City Town Center that year, he created a cast of his handprints.
Today, those handprints and Brycen’s photo grace the wall just inside the door of the brand-new Discover! Children’s Museum at 415 N. Pearl Street in Centralia. And on Saturday, Brycen, now 17, assisted with the ribbon-cutting at the grand opening.
He doesn’t color anymore — I asked — but the young man from Napavine said he’ll likely put his fine motor skills to work as an electrician.
He can do anything he wants, something evident by the very existence of the museum once only a dream of his preschool teacher and another working mom.
Seventeen years ago, Kelly Vanesse organized a field trip to the Hands On Children’s Museum in Olympia, and a parent picking up her child from preschool afterward bemoaned the fact that the local community didn’t have a similar venue.
Vanesse and the parent, Renell Norquist, a nurse at Providence Centralia Hospital, set to work in 2009 exploring what it would take to start a children’s museum in Lewis County. They sought advice from local community leaders who embraced the idea, including members of the Chehalis Community Renaissance Team, known today as Experience Chehalis.
“I’m just amazed, you know, seeing a dream come true,” Vanesse said. “What’s so amazing is actually seeing it come to fruition. We have an incredible board.”
Larry McGee, museum board president and former chair of the CCRT, described the grand opening as “a thrill.” He noted that the large red barn in the museum contains about 20 educational games to teach youngsters geography, math, and other subjects.
“We’ve always been focused on learning,” he said.
In May 2010, two dozen community leaders gathered at Centralia College to discuss what a children’s museum in Lewis County might look like. A 36-page draft study concluded a local children’s museum would be feasible if enough money could be raised to build it, estimated in April 2011 at $2.2 million for construction and $262,500 a year to operate it.
Today, we have a local children’s museum, thanks to the diligent partnership of many volunteers who gave time, energy, and money to create an inspirational gem for youngsters in the heart of Centralia. The wide open bright museum offers plenty of wonderful exhibits where youngsters can explore, touch, play and learn. Parents wanted an open design that made it easy for them to keep track of their children, McGee said.
The museum is part of the $12 million United Learning Center, a 12,800-square-foot collaborative educational center for children three to 18. It includes the Boys & Girls Club of Lewis County; the Bezos Academy, a four-classroom preschool; and an after-school mentorship program. The grand opening for the United Learning Center is May 14.
I remember visiting the pilot children’s museum in 2013 with my teenage son, my daughter and her friend, both 12, and my two-year-old stepgranddaughter who bounced from one exhibit to the next, touching, playing, and learning. The pilot project, which operated less than a year in unused retail space, provided a glimpse of what the museum could offer and enabled organizers to gauge interest and gather numbers. In 11 months, it served 15,000 people from 58 different zip codes.
Some of those same exhibits are incorporated in the permanent museum, including a green screen studio for creating stories or experiencing new worlds. Other exhibits include:
• A dinosaur discovery zone where children can excavate fossil replicas
• An interactive floor projector where they can jump and stomp
• A lab where they can use magnifying glasses and microscopes to examine specimens
• A miniature train track that weaves over bridges and through tunnels
• A large light-bright illumination station for creating colorful patterns and pictures
• An animal care center for wannabe veterinarians to help ailing pets
• A marketplace where children can shop for groceries
• A music room with instruments
• A toddler woodlands with puzzles and sensory toys
• And LEGO bricks for constructing cars, buildings or even monsters.
As a writer, I loved seeing colorful hardbound children’s books fill a small bookcase. It turns out books sent through Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library that couldn’t be delivered go to the United Way, which gave them to the children’s museum.
The Twin Cities Rotary donated time and material to construct exhibits inside the museum. Local businesses like the Good Health Nutrition Center and Book N Brush in Chehalis have offered to sponsor days at the museum where admission will be half price. Partners in the museum include Peak Credit Union, Gesa Credit Union, Olympia Federal Savings, Lincoln Creek Lumber Co., Rotary International, United Way of Lewis County, and the city of Centralia.
“One thing I’m proud of is that everything you see in here has been donated by people, and there’s no debt,” McGee said. The board and staff works closely with other children’s museums to learn what works and what doesn’t, he said.
Beginning on May 30, people can reserve the party room for birthday or family celebrations. The fee will include admission for up to 16 guests, an hour in the party room, and 20 minutes to set up and clean up.
The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday, but the last admission tickets are sold at 4:15 p.m. Admission is $10 for adults and children, while youngsters under a year are free. Annual memberships of $84 for two people or $168 for a family of four provides free year-round museum admission and 10 percent discounts on party rentals. Call 360-623-1126 or email info@discovermuseum.org for information.
When I think of the museum, I realize how many children will benefit from an idea sparked in 2009, a dream fulfilled through hard work and commitment by people looking beyond themselves to the future.
•••
Julie McDonald, a personal historian from Toledo, may be reached at memoirs@chaptersoflife.com.
