As 2011 winds down and we gear up for the year ahead, the Discovery Museum wants to celebrate its accomplishments in 2011 and thank the community for your enthusiasm and support of the opportunities we bring to children and families every day.
We started the year by responding to the needs and requests of families and added lots of new membership options. The Reciprocal Membership, allowing visiting privileges at hundreds of museums around the country, has been very popular.
Our second annual Kite Festival was held in April and continues to “soar” with success. Attendance doubled from the first year, and the wonderful programs about kites we offered during the month of April were amazing.
After months of preparation and planning, we received a sizable grant from the Coastal Resource Enhancement Fund to add more educational information to our “Belly of the Whale” exhibit. Those additions should be finished in early 2012.
The opportunity to host the “Mission to Mars” traveling exhibit during the summer was a wonderful partnership with local children’s museums.
The two summer science camps were huge successes for all the kids involved. And our inaugural Discovery Drama Camp and our production of Seussical, Jr. is still the talk of the town! Closing out all of the busy-ness of 2011 is a personal milestone for me: the launch of our free weekly storytime program, “Tuesday Tales,” this August. Bringing the community three free enrichment programs for kids—and one focused on literacy and kindergarten-readiness—is something we are very proud of.
We are planning so much for 2012 and are excited to keep our wonderful programs and exhibits moving forward, so we hope you don’t miss out on all the chances to play, discover, and learn this year and always.
Kelly White O’Neill is executive director of the Santa Maria Valley Discovery Museum. Discovery Corner is a weekly column in the Sun, highlighting events, science activities, and more for the Santa Maria Valley Discovery Museum at 705 S. McClelland in Santa Maria. Send comments to discoverycorner@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Dec 22-29, 2011.