‘It’s in our hearts’
LISA HOBBS - News Editor
Chasing a dream is more than just wanting something, it’s about taking action, embracing challenges and staying committed to the goal even when the progress takes time. Those words embody the efforts of Lindsay Powell and all those who have stepped up to help establish a McMinnville Children’s Museum in Warren County.
“The idea for one began after I had my son,” said Powell. “My son is about 1 year old. We had moved back from North Carolina a few years before. In Raleigh, there was so much to do for kids. It’s all accessible. It’s either cheap or free. You don’t have to break your budget to go do these activities. You can walk out of your house, and the sidewalk connects to a greenway walking trail. It’s family friendly.”
While she loves living here, she discovered that there’s not much for a mother with a small children to do.
“Looking back, I knew I was giving up the accessibility of that for something much greater, which is here. I love it here. My family is here. We have a lot of great things. We have rivers, we have hiking and you do not have them in other places. However, as a mother with a small child, there’s not much geared towards very young children. There are people in this age group of life and there’s nothing much until you get into kindergarten or first grade.”
Powell, who says she loved going to Children’s Museums when she was a child, decided that she could make establish one here. They have chosen property in Westwood for construction, obtained IRS designation as a 501(c)3, ramped up fundraising efforts, a established a board of directors: Mark Harvey, Karen Young, Kristen Keen, Kendra Matheney, Daniel Barnes, Hanifah Barnes, Jennifer Meredith, Kirsten Cunningham, Lindsay Foos, Kelsey Smith, John Adcock, Stevana Bouldin, Powell and Adams.
“The McGees are willing to give us two years go come up with the money to purchase the property,” said Powell. “They are working with us on getting the zoning. We are doing an environmental study. We just met with an architect. We are working with people to get grants. It has just snowballed into what I wanted it to be.”
Primary site development is being conducted by Allison Moore. Once that is complete, it will open the door to the possibility of sizeable grant funding and government donations. Grants and government entities won’t fund ideas, but they will fund well-established plans.
While the mission behind McMinnville Children’s Museum is to provide a positive and nurturing environment to promote the education and development for the children of Warren County and surrounding counties, there is also a desire to give back and support the community.
“We need $350,000, and that will get us the property and all the way through to site development,” said Powell. “Allison is donating her time. After that, we’d like to pay people for their work. Part of this idea is we are taking money and putting it back into the community. Obviously, if someone wants to donate their time, we will take it. If not, we want to pay them so we’re putting back into our own community.”
The facility will be three stories high and be constructed on five acres. It will be a state-of-the-art STEAM discovery center, a place filled with hands-on science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics experiences. It will be a place will children of all ages can jump out of the textbook and into the real world.
“We envision a place with science exhibits, an art center, a splash pad, a climbing playground where children of every ability can explore, create and play,” said Powell. “We really want three stories. The bottom floor will give us a little bit of area for storage with a loading zone. Then, we will have a lot of fixtures that we don’t rotate – our water table, our big crawl-through play area, the eating area, nursery. Upstairs, on the second floor, we will have rotating exhibits for older children and our classrooms. On the third floor, we are thinking of permanent storage and office spaces.”
Adams added that once the facility has been constructed, they can reevaluate and determine if something else is needed, which is why they want five acres – expansion room.
The project launched in May of 2024, and Adams says she still meets people who have no idea that the effort is underway. She has the McMinnville Children’s Museum T-shirt to prove it.
“I’ll be at a park with my children, and I’ll have my shirt on, and people will be looking at it and ask, “Where is that?” I say, ‘It’s in our hearts.’ It is, for right now,” said Adams.
To help get the word out, they began offering programs. The next will be July 28, a Hammer Print Art Workshop at the Sand Bar in Rock Island State Park, from 10 a.m. to 12 noon. On Aug. 5 and Aug. 8, there will be Squishy Circuts STEAM Workshop at Magness Library, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. At previous events, over 560 Tinker Take-Out Kits have been handed out to children and families, and more than 400 families have been served through programming, events and workshops.
If you would like to help in making McMinnville Children’s Museum a reality in Warren County, visit its website (themcmuseum.org) and make a monetary donation of $1 to $50,000. Naming rights to rooms and exhibits are available, as well as commemorative bricks. Additional information about the museum and upcoming programs can be found there, as well.
Residents can plan to attend one of its fundraisers, with the next one slated for New Years at Park Theater. From 4-8 p.m., the event will be family-friendly with music and games for children. After an hour’s break, the adults’ portion of the evening will begin in which drinks will be served. More details will be available as they are finalized.
If you need more information about McMinnville Children’s Museum, email themcmuseum@gmail.com.