When the Southwest Washington Fair opens today, parents can provide their children with fun hands-on learning with a visit to the Lewis County Children’s Museum’s two exhibits in the Miss Friendlyville tent behind the Blue Pavilion.
Last year, the Power of Air exhibit let youngsters push scarves through holes and watch them move through transparent tubes pushed by an invisible force and out through a center dome.
“The children are mesmerized and captivated because this unseen force is moving these colorful scarves as if by magic,” said Larry McGee, chairman of the Chehalis Community Renaissance Team.
“Kids have a great time watching where it goes and chasing after it as it flies out!” said Renell Norquist, one of the children’s museum organizers. “We also noticed a few grownups taking part in the fun. You can’t help but giggle as you play.”
This year, youngsters can learn about water too at the highly interactive water table exhibit called Splash, featuring colorful spouts, rotating wheels, hand pumps, and valves.
“Children can turn knobs, assemble tubing, and work pumps to change the way the water flows,” Norquist said. “Water has weight, and parts will allow kids to fill and empty buckets to see the spilling results.”
A small crafts project, free balloons, and face painting will be offered at the exhibits, which may someday grace a local children’s museum.
Allyn Roe, Chehalis-Centralia Airport manager and Renaissance Team vice chair, volunteered his time and talent to construct the exhibits. McGee described Roe as “a highly creative individual and quite a craftsman when it comes to building.”
“These two exhibits alone would have cost over $75,000 if purchased from the companies that specialize in building exhibits for hands-on children’s museums,” McGee said. “Thanks to Allyn and generous donors, we will build these two exhibits for about $15,000.”
To learn more about the children’s museum, stop by the exhibit and bring any eager little learners or visit the website at www.lewiscochildrensmuseum.org. And if you see Roe, you might thank him for his hard work.
Congratuations, Ports
Jim Rothlin, Port of Chehalis executive director, updated the Renaissance Team on plans to erect an incubator building, which would “take baby companies and build them into bigger companies” by sharing startup costs. Within three to five years, Rothlin said, businesses move out and the incubator fosters the growth of other new companies. The port may work with the Pacific Northwest Center of Excellence for Clean Energy at Centralia College to identify potential industries for the incubator. He said a $40,000 federal matching grant will be used to conduct a feasibility study.
Since Tacoma’s William Factory Small Business Incubator began in 1986, McGee said, it has spawned more than 4,000 jobs.
Given that Lewis County’s unemployment rate stood at 13 percent in June, imagine what it would be like if Centralia and Chehalis voters hadn’t approved formation of port districts 25 years ago. The Port of Centralia has brought in 33 businesses and 800 jobs, while the Port of Chehalis and the Chehalis Industrial Park have 50 businesses employing more than 2,300 people.
Both districts formed in September 1986. The Centralia-Chehalis Chamber of Commerce recently celebrated the Port of Centralia’s 25th anniversary with a Business After Hours at Dick’s Brewery in one of the port’s two industrial parks.
The Port of Chehalis offers two industrial parks — 357 acres in Curtis and more than 700 acres in the Chehalis Industrial Park.
And, depending on what voters decide in November, Winlock may soon feature a port district.
Although port districts collect taxes, it seems the payoff in jobs and local payroll offsets the costs.
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Julie McDonald, a personal historian in Toledo, may be reached at memoirs@chaptersoflife.com.
