April 27, 2026
Chronicle Excerpt
Four-year-old Brycen Milton’s meticulous eye for detail paid off when he won a coloring contest in 2013 sponsored by those seeking to start a children’s museum in Lewis County. As a reward, during the grand opening of a pilot museum at the Twin City Town Center that year, he created a cast of his handprints.
Today, those handprints and Brycen’s photo grace the wall just inside the door of the brand-new Discover! Children’s Museum at 415 N. Pearl Street in Centralia. And on Saturday, Brycen, now 17, assisted with the ribbon-cutting at the grand opening.
He doesn’t color anymore — I asked — but the young man from Napavine said he’ll likely put his fine motor skills to work as an electrician.
He can do anything he wants, something evident by the very existence of the museum once only a dream of his preschool teacher and another working mom.
Seventeen years ago, Kelly Vanesse organized a field trip to the Hands On Children’s Museum in Olympia, and a parent picking up her child from preschool afterward bemoaned the fact that the local community didn’t have a similar venue.
Vanesse and the parent, Renell Norquist, a nurse at Providence Centralia Hospital, set to work in 2009 exploring what it would take to start a children’s museum in Lewis County. They sought advice from local community leaders who embraced the idea, including members of the Chehalis Community Renaissance Team, known today as Experience Chehalis.
“I’m just amazed, you know, seeing a dream come true,” Vanesse said. “What’s so amazing is actually seeing it come to fruition. We have an incredible board.”