It’s been two decades since the people of Chehalis collected their loose change and built Penny Playground. As a high school student I helped out, putting a few boards into place during one of the work parties. When I take my own children to the park now, I proudly point out my tiny contribution. I’m invested in that place. It’s one of the hundreds of small treasures that brought me back home as a young man.
On Saturday, again with my children in tow, I was witness to another piece of that good life, but this one is not yet as permanent as the boards I bolted into place.
The Discover! Children’s Museum opened this weekend for a six-month trial. It’s a $70,000 investment and experiment to see if this community can muster the money and volunteer hours to build an even bigger version that could be open permanently. (Full disclosure: my wife has volunteered with the project and I plan to take my children there. Often.)
As I took photos and interviewed visitors for the story in today’s paper, I talked to a mix of parents. Some have been volunteers and have dreamed for years along with the founders. They feel ownership and said they planned to continue helping build this project. Others said they had simply heard or read in The Chronicle about the opening or had seen the storefront as they drove by.
I asked many of the organizers if they believe the project will attract enough support to be sustained in a community that still feels the impacts of the closure of the TransAlta mine in 2006, the devastating flood of 2007 and a national recession that slammed us in 2008.
In addressing the question of volunteer support, children’s museum co-founder Kelly Vanasse said she will always remember their first work party in early January as they faced an empty building with holes where drywall had been torn out after the flood five years ago.
The half dozen members of the core organizers group were surveying the scene, she said.
“All of a sudden I saw people with ladders, brooms, mops and paint cans, coming in droves,” she told me. “It brought tears to my eyes. I’ll never forget that vision.”
She counts 50-some volunteers who helped build the museum that opened Sunday, and said they quickly ran through all their volunteer sign-up forms on that first day.
This project is an opportunity and a challenge for the people of Lewis County, especially in a time when other worthy groups are struggling to find enough support.
I see several possibilities.
One: The museum will attract visitors but not enough financial and volunteer support to survive. The pilot project will shine brightly, then burn out.
Two: Support will grow, but at the expense of other local organizations. The “pie” of resources will be split differently, with this new attraction slicing away at funds and volunteer hours that would have gone elsewhere.
These are possibilities, but not the only possible outcomes.
There is a third, truly exciting option.
Three: Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and those who want to invest in our community’s children, people who are busy living their lives and aren’t actively involved in other organizations, will jump into the Discover! project and will make a discovery of their own. Perhaps this will be a project that brings a new generation of workhorses into the civic life of the Twin Cities, a place that teaches grown-ups how to give back to their community. Maybe, if they give of their time and money to the museum, they’ll make connections with people and begin hatching new ideas to make this a better place to live and grow.
Organizer Allyn Roe, a dynamic young community volunteer, said he worries that this new museum he loves is one more thing eating at a limited pie of community resources. The fact that he has this concern shows that he is a realist and a practical planner.
However, the enthusiasm on display Saturday, both from longtime civic boosters and from people who aren’t ordinarily involved, shows that there is promise for growth in both the minds of the children and in the hearts of the adults who love them.
Maybe, just maybe, our community’s “pie” will grow thanks to a plum new treat in Chehalis.
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Brian Mittge is editor-in-chief of The Chronicle. Contact him with comments and news tips at bmittge@chronline.com or (360) 807-8234.
