FAQ

about

Discover! Children’s Museum (DCM) strongly believes that encouraging imaginative and fun activities leads to meaningful developmental growth. The value of such Children’s facilities is well known around the world. Because DCM provides shared experiences for the entire family, more memorable discoveries and learning can easily happen. There are few family activity facilities in Lewis County and during winter months there are even fewer. Many families travel outside our county to take in family fun coupled with educational opportunities.

This problem was clearly understood by the Chehalis Community Renaissance Team study because a children’s museum was integrated into their 2009 Comprehensive Plan for the area. Since then, the original DCM concept team and additional volunteers formed a children’s museum advisory group and became a separate 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

Our Pilot Museum Project was launched in 2013. This was a test program and was only intended to be open for six months. With much better participation than had been forecasted, the pilot was open eleven months and made a small profit. As with many leading children’s museums, the wisdom of incorporating a high-quality preschool also became evident. The need for affordable or “free for qualifying families” early learning programs in Lewis County is significant. Less than 34% of area kids entering the school systems are “kindergarten ready” as assessed by kindergarten teachers. Discover! Children’s Museum intends to provide a distinguishing place for an early learning partner program inside the new facility.

Today we are fundraising to build the permanent Discover! Children’s Museum. We have achieved 60% of our funding and we appreciate your continued support. You can learn more about us throughout our website.

mission

Discover! Children’s Museum serves and nurtures the learning needs of our community’s children and families by incorporating both a museum with interactive educational exhibits and an inclusive community early learning program. This distinguished combination and a multi-dimensional, quality learning environment promises to make a big difference in our children’s readiness to learn.

vision

Discover! Children’s Museum will provide memorable and impressionable experiences that ignite curiosity and learning. Through educational expertise and collaboration, DCM will promote constructive problem solving and artistic expression in individuals of all ages. As a spark for imagination and learning, DCM will create “kindergarten ready” students, improving scholastic achievement and inspiring secondary education.

new museum

With your support we will build and operate the new Discover! Children’s Museum, a state-of-the-art museum and early learning center. The new 18,000 sq. ft. facility will provide hands-on interactive exhibits and high-quality early intervention programs for pre-school children, as well as educational activities.

The new Discover! Children’s Museum will be located in downtown Centralia at the corner of Pearl and Maple.

leadership

Our Board of Directors is a dedicated group of volunteers who help guide the vision, support fundraising efforts and manage the development of our Discover! Children’s Museum.

Marilynn Chintella
Retired Science Educator
President Friends of the Chehalis Library

Joe Clark
Executive Director
Twin Transit

Vanessa Horning
Financial Advisor
Edward Jones Investments

Larry McGee
DCM Campaign Lead
Retired Associate Dean, Centralia College
IBM Global Services Consulting
PPG Management

Jakob McGhie
Associate Attorney
Althauser Rayan Abbarno

Andrea Roe
Commercial Project Coordinator
Kugel Construction

Annalee Tobey
Executive Director
Chehalis Community Renaissance Team

Kelly Vanasse
Owner/Teacher
Preschool Playtime
Chehalis, WA