Letter to the Editor: Celebrating Sandcastles Children’s Museum

Letter to the Editor: Celebrating Sandcastles Children’s Museum.

Dear Editor,

There is a lot of excitement and anticipation at Sandcastles Children’s Museum as we ready the museum to open for our 2018 season! Although we have been closed for the last month, we have been busy building new exhibits, maintaining existing exhibits, and cleaning the museum from top to bottom. We cannot wait for the kids to come in to see the changes we have made, and witness the excitement on their faces as we open again for another season of learning through play!

This year will be our 12th season open for business. We are so proud of what we have built together as a community. From our humble beginning in 800 square feet of borrowed space, to the beautiful historic building that we purchased and renovated, we are so thankful for all the support we have received over the years as we established our organization. We now have over thirty interactive exhibits which include a real Cessna airplane, hospital baby nursery, farm, vet center, restaurant, grocery, climbing wall, Badger Playship and so much more. In 2017 we had over 27,000 visitors come and enjoy the learning environment we have created together.

This year promises to be another great year of learning as we launch new exhibits and offer a multitude of programming to stimulate curiosity and the love of learning. We will be offering a craft camp, a chemistry for kids class, underwater robotics, a cooking class, stop motion and Chroma key video classes, robotic Lego programs, and photography classes.

Our newly built exhibit, Preschooler’s Cove: a Pirate’s Adventure, was designed and built with our youngest visitors in mind. Through the support of Community Foundation of Mason County and Chemical Bank, we were able to create a special place just for preschoolers and their developmental needs. They will love operating the gear wall, learning eye/hand coordination on the giant busy board, rolling balls down ramps, and peeking out of the portholes.

We open for kids and families to come play on Friday, February 23, and from there we will resume our weekend hours of every Friday 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., Saturdays 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Sundays noon to 4 p.m.

But before we let the kids have all the fun, we are having a huge celebration just for adults. This Saturday, February 17th from 6 to 10 p.m., we are hosting our annual “Kid for a Night” fund raising event. On this night, the museum will cater to adults encouraging them to check their maturity at the door and enjoy a night of fun. We have a fabulous menu offered by Dannee’s West Coast Catering, desserts by Ruth Anderson, and a cash bar that features Starving Artist beer, wine, and frozen daiquiris and margaritas. We will also have live music by Delilah Dewylde and adult crafts at our Art Center. Guests will have an opportunity to explore the museum as well as try out our underwater robotics and some fun science experiments presented by our local science teachers. They can even have a personalized balloon hat crafted especially for them.

It’s time to celebrate Sandcastles Children’s Museum, a wonderful organization that serves the families of our community, which was created and supported by so many generous individuals and businesses who love children.

Sincerely,

Kristin Korendyke

Executive Director

Sandcastles Children’s Museum