Kelly Vanasse, left, and Renell Norquest, right, the pair who hatched the idea of a children's museum in Chehalis, help with a ceremonial ribbon cutting on Saturday at the Discover! Children's Museum in the Twin City Town Center. This storefront, in between Maurices and Michaels, across the parking lot from Wendy's, will be open for six months as a pilot project.
Landon Pinion, 2 1/2, uses a play drill on a stack of boards at the "Earthquake Zone," a construction table that periodically shakes to illustrate the effects of an earthquake. "Mommy, I make a giant wall! It's gonna be big!" Landon told his mother, Karrie Callahan, Centralia, who said she heard about Saturday's opening of the Discover! Children's Museum and wanted to stop by. "Four dollars a head — we can handle that," she said.
Abela DeSpain, 5, Chehalis, plays the part of a veterinarian in an exhibit at the Discover! Children's Museum designed to encourage inquiry into science and medicine. Her father, Kevin, said the family was driving through the Twin City Town Center and noticed the new museum.
Emma Anderson, 4, Centralia, enjoys a puff of air from a wind cannon in the "Power of Air" exhibit at the Discover! Children's Museum moments after its grand opening on Saturday. Her mother, Diane, has been following the idea of a Twin Cities children's museum since her older daughter was in preschool. "We watched the idea start and now we get to see it happen," Diane Anderson said as her daughter played.
The children of Lewis County have a new place to play — at least for the next six months.
The Discover! Children’s Museum opened Saturday and logged more than 200 visitors in its first two hours of operation. Organizers see it as a strong start to an experimental pilot project by a Chehalis civic group designed to see if the Lewis County area can sustain the support needed for an educational playground in the Mint City.
For Saige Mortensen, a 4-year-old from Curtis, “discover” was indeed the right word as she explored the “Dino Dig.” She was having a hands-on — and feet-on — experience as she perched inside the elevated sandbox, excavating fake dinosaur fossils with her grandmother, Giselle Murphy of Onalaska.
One of the volunteers running the children’s museum soon arrived and said that, while visitors weren’t allowed to climb into the sandbox, Saige’s need to climb inside the box was a demonstration that the ongoing construction of the museum should include a stepstool or bench for younger children at the Dino Dig.
Murphy said she plans to bring her other grandchildren to the children’s museum, and said she picked up volunteer forms at the door.
“I read about this in the newspaper and I thought, ‘That sounds like a fabulous place to take my granddaughter,’” Murphy said. “I’m thrilled to see this in Lewis County. ... It really opens up your imagination.”
During a sunny ceremonial ribbon cutting at noon Saturday, Lewis County Commissioner Edna Fund said the museum has something for children of all ages.
“Twenty percent of the people in Lewis County are kids, and for the kids at heart too, way to go,” said Fund, a Centralia Republican.
Chehalis Mayor Tony Ketchum congratulated volunteers who have worked for years on the project.
“You get to see your dream come true,” the mayor said moments after a ribbon-cutting at the storefront in the Twin City Town Center between Maurices and Michaels.
And is if they had it planned, the pair who originated the idea of the children’s museum said in near unison, “Let’s go play!”
With that, a crowd of children, parents, grandparents and community supporters poured into a building that, six weeks ago, was an empty storefront that still was missing drywall torn out after the 2007 flood.
The two on either side of the ribbon cutting, Kelly Vanasse and Renell Norquest, have been working on this project for six years.
“It’s just been a whirlwind,” Vanasse said. “It’s just been amazing to see the community come to support us like this.”
Whether the children’s museum will live on past the six-month pilot project is still unknown.
Advisory board member Allyn Roe said a detailed financial estimate suggests they’ll bring in 47 percent of the operating cost through entrance fees. That leaves just over half the cost to be raised through grants, donations and fundraisers. So far the project has not received any tax money, and Roe doesn’t expect that it will.
He admits to being worried about whether there will be money to build and sustain a bigger, permanent children’s museum.
“This is a very generous community, but the pie is only so big and you’re taking another slice,” Roe said.
Still, he said support has been strong so far. Over the past five weeks they’ve had more than 50 volunteers help build this pilot project museum, Roe said, with 30 working into the wee hours Friday night and Saturday morning to prepare for the opening.
“It gets fun around here at 6 a.m.,” a sleep-deprived Roe said shortly after the noon opening on Saturday.
They’ve spent about $30,000 so far in building this temporary location. The final cost for the six-month project is estimated at about $70,000, Roe said.
With help from the national children’s association group, they have detailed sets of estimates — such as an average attendance of 34 visitors per day — that they can compare with actual metrics from this six-month trial period.
“This projects helps prove or disprove those numbers,” Roe said.
Stacy Engel, a Security State Bank human resources officer and another core volunteer, said the group has not yet approached businesses for donations.
“We want to show them what can be done,” she said.
Inside the museum, children played with intense concentration and gleeful exclamations. Many of their watchful parents have been volunteers during the six-week construction and the planning that preceded it.
Annalee Tobey of Adna, who has helped with the project’s Facebook page, watched her almost-4-year-old son Brayden playing with an extensive train set.
“It’s another example of how well our community comes together and can accomplish things on a volunteer level,” Tobey said. “To see it become a reality is so thrilling.”
Norquist, the mother of 10-year-old and 7-year-old boys, said she’s invested a lot of time away from her family in her six-year quest to bring this museum to life. On Saturday, as her sons explored the museum, she said she asked them what they thought.
“I said today, ‘Was it worth all of mommy’s meetings?’ (They gave me) a big smile and a yes,” Norquist said.
