6/14/2013 Discover! Children’s Museum Extending Pilot Project Through October

Feedback: Museum Will Use Additional Three Months to Gather More Data, Support

Friday, June 14, 2013
By Kyle Spurr, The Chronicle 

Discover! Children’s Museum, the six-month pilot project open at the Twin City Town Center in Chehalis, will remain open through October in the same location to gather more data and community input for a possible full-scale museum.

“We are going to extend it through October because its been so successful and financially we have the means to extend it without having to raise additional funds,” Allyn Roe, the Children’s Museum Advisory Group vice chair, said.

The experimental pilot museum has seen more than 8,000 guests since it opened on Feb. 9, nearly tripling the expected attendance.

Roe said the museum needs the additional time to better advertise and invite people from neighboring communities to visit. The museum also wants to add more birthday parties and partner with local childhood development groups, such as speech therapy and autism groups.

The museum keeps track of visitors’ ZIP codes and has collected more than 70, but not many from people in coastal towns, the Longview area and East Lewis County.

Roe wants to spread word of the museum to the outlying communities.

Extending the pilot museum three months will ultimately help the organizers find a permanent location that is larger and more affordable, Roe said.

“We are starting to look at size and cost requirements and locations,” Roe said. “We haven’t seen a location that would work for use right now, but we are keeping our eyes out.”

Roe said the Children’s Museum Advisory Group, which operates under the nonprofit Friends of the Chehalis Community Renaissance, is also considering finding a location to either build a new museum or renovate an old building.

“The current location is not a longterm solution,” Roe said.

The advisory group is leasing the 3,300-square-foot building in Twin City Town Center between Michaels and Maurices on a month-to-month basis.

The entire pilot project is expected to cost about $50,000.

The museum, which is open Wednesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., sees about 120 people per day.

The positive response from schools visiting the museum for field trips and parents using it for play dates is encouraging to organizers.

“Its wanted in the area,” Roe said.