12/20/2013 Our Views: Discover! Children's Museum an Absolute Success

December 20, 2013
By The Chronicle

The undisputed success of the Discover! Children’s Museum is a testament to excellent planning, stellar leadership and fiscal responsibility.

The museum is finishing up its pilot project with a day of free admission on Dec. 29.

It’s an opportunity for anyone who hasn’t stopped by to see this gem in action a chance to do so before it closes up shop.

The museum is a veritable paradise for children, with technological and interactive displays right alongside good old-fashioned staples of youthful entertainment. To see children enjoy the facility is to see unbridled displays of pure enthusiasm mixed with an environment that makes learning fun. 

The museum opened in the Twin City Town Center in February for what was supposed to be a six-month trial run. The project was later extended through December. More than 14,600 adults and children have paid to walk through the doors of the museum since it opened.

That’s triple the number of people organizers expected. 

The bad news is that the doors will close Dec. 29, but the good news is that the museum might not be absent for long. 

In fact, if it comes back, it will be better than ever.

Organizers in the Children’s Museum Advisory Group — which operates under the nonprofit Friends of the Chehalis Community Renaissance — agreed this week to explore the possibility of purchasing a permanent site.

Their eyes are currently on a 1.2-acre parcel of land near Home Depot on Chehalis-Centralia Airport property.

Allyn Roe, the vice chair of the advisory group and manager of the airport, said the permanent museum with cost about $3 million to build. It would be considerably larger than the temporary space, with an expected 18,000 square feet of space.

The proposed location is an excellent choice. It provides plenty of free marketing from a property that is clearly visible to Interstate 5. It also would attract some of the throngs of shoppers who visit Walmart, Home Depot, the Grocery Outlet and other businesses in the Twin City Town Center.

But raising the money will take a lot of effort paired with a lot of generosity from the community.

The organizers of the museum have already proven that they are good stewards of their finances, turning a volunteer-powered, six-month pilot project with moderate goals into a grand accomplishment of civic involvement.

The museum is an important asset for our community. It provides our youth with an opportunity to learn outside the classroom, and has been proven to bring people from outside the community as well.

Roe, interim director Marilynn Chintella and many, many others have started something big.

When the time comes to raise money for a permanent museum, we hope the community will step forward to help them take it to the next level.