Thanks to business and community support, the Children’s Museum of Sonoma County is becoming a reality.
Starting from scratch
For more than 15 years, Michaud worked in software animation and design, including as part of the executive management team that launched Lucas Arts’ educational software division. Michaud left the industry in 2001 to raise her two young sons, now ages 12 and 10. Like so many other parents, she struggled with the boredom that comes from too many visits to the neighborhood park and longed to find activities to share with her kids that offered them both new and mind-challenging experiences. That’s when a friend told her about the Bay Area Discovery Museum in Sausalito.
The Discovery Museum, founded in 1987 and relocated to the former Fort Baker site at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge in 1991, offers interactive science and art exhibits for kids ages 8 and under. There, she found open-ended and creative activities that enthralled both her children and herself. Unlike traditional museums, where small children may struggle to use their “inside voices” or keep their hands to themselves, children’s museums are designed for kids to engage with the exhibits and learn through play. “When I was there, I could see the lights come on and the gears turning in my children’s heads,” says Michaud. “It felt good, as a parent, to be exposing them to something that was good for their bodies and also engaged their minds at the same time.”
Of course, the downside to those visits was the long drive to Sausalito and back with small kids in the car. Michaud began looking into why there wasn’t a similar resource closer to home. Growing up in Houston, she’d attended intensive art classes at the city’s natural science museum and knew how much the experience had given her by encouraging both the artistic skill and creative thinking that would define her career. The idea stayed with her and, in 2005, she decided to attend a national children’s museum conference in Indianapolis.
“I had nothing when I got there—no clear idea, no business cards—but left feeling so inspired,” says Michaud. “While there, I attended an all-day seminar on how to start a museum, and the room was full of people just like me. We were all starting from scratch with a desire to create a place like this for the children in our communities.” When she returned home, she sent out an email to 50 people, asking if anyone would be interested in helping her. Four responded.
Undaunted, the small group gathered around Michaud’s kitchen table to craft a mission statement, form a board of directors and fill out the nonprofit paperwork. As luck would have it, one of those first supporters was Bernice Callahan, a neighbor and mentor who’d started the California Parenting Institute of Santa Rosa from her living room years earlier and was eager to share her experience with the group.
Next, Michaud approached the organizers of Petaluma’s Movies in the Park, asking if the Children’s Museum could hand out informational fliers at their next event. They agreed, but asked her to bring along some interactive science projects for the children in attendance. Michaud and her volunteers quickly put together a few experiments and found an eager audience in the families that attended. Fliers that Michaud posted at her children’s school soon drew the attention of Theresa Giacomino, an early childhood development instructor and fellow parent, who was eager to help. Giacomino was the source of many of the early experiment ideas and now acts as director of programs and education for CMOSC.
Michaud remembers this small-but-dedicated group packing their minivans with homemade experiments and heading out to local events like community movie nights and farmers markets free of charge on weekends, gathering volunteers and small donations along the way. They participated in six events in 2005 and 14 in 2006. At these events, children learned first-hand about the physical sciences by experimenting with tools like magnets, gravity rods and bubbles. By 2008, teachers had begun approaching Michaud about bringing her collection of experiments, now christened the “Museum-on-the-Go,” to local schools. In response, the group created a program that matched California curriculum standards, complete with teacher guides, and began its first classroom visits in 2009.
Turning the tide
Then came the phone call that turned the tide. In 2007, Kristyn Byrne, then president-elect of Junior League of Napa/Sonoma was looking for long-term projects that benefited local children and had heard about a children’s museum being formed in Sacramento with support from that area’s Junior League. (Coincidentally, Michaud had stayed in touch with several people from her first museum conference to trade ideas and moral support, including the founder of the Sacramento Children’s Museum, which just opened to the public.) When Byrne did some research and found that Michaud was trying to do the same thing here, she contacted Michaud and encouraged her to apply for a grant.
As a result, the Junior League awarded Michaud a preliminary grant, followed by $35,000 of seed funding for Museum-on-the-Go’s programming over three years. Michaud was able to expand the program considerably and purchase a 12-foot trailer to transport the growing number of exhibits. In addition to the Junior League, the organization received early grant support from several committed donors, including North Bay Corporation, PG&E, Medtronic, Santa Rosa West Rotary Club, the Active 20/30 Club and philanthropists Gordon and Joanne Dow.
Michaud says the plan from the very beginning was to use Museum-on-the-Go as an outreach tool while continuing to work for a dedicated museum site. “The goal has always been to open a permanent location, but we also feel strongly about what the Museum-on-the-Go brings to schools—especially underserved schools, where parents may not be able to go to a children’s museum because of finances or transportation,” she says. In 2009, the organization began charging for its events, but community donations have helped subsidize or fully covered many of the costs for underserved school visits. In addition to school visits, Museum-on-the-Go is now being hired for a variety of community and private events, such as the Gravenstein Apple Fair in Sebastopol, Mark West Springs Science Fair and the Petaluma Arts and Crafts Fair as well as private birthday parties.
Julie Ratto of Santa Rosa is a sustaining member of the Junior League and an early advocate of the museum who now sits on CMOSC’s board of directors. With a background in biochemistry and nutritional science, this mother of four had visited other California children’s museums and was eager to help bring one to Sonoma County. Ratto has taken part in many museum events over the years and says she’s still moved by the variety of experiences children enjoy with the experiments. “When I volunteer, I see kids of all different abilities, who speak different languages and come from different backgrounds, all playing with the exhibits,” she says. “They may not use them in the same ways, but they’re all getting something out of them.”
Ratto says that once you’ve seen the museum’s mission in action, it’s easy to understand what it brings to children. “As a board member, a lot of what I do is fund-raising,” she explains. “To feel at ease with that, you have to feel passionate about what it is you’re asking for. That’s what’s hit home for me. I find it so easy to talk about the need for a children’s museum in this community.”
Ratto isn’t the only member of her family who’s enthusiastic about the museum’s mission. The North Bay Corporation, one of the museum’s earliest major donors, is owned by her father-in-law, James Ratto. She says that through his involvement with the museum, he’s been blown away by seeing firsthand how his contributions benefit local children.
Inspiring curiosity
Mark Dolan of Santa Rosa is a principal engineer at Medtronic and has been a CMOSC board member for the past two years. He first got involved when his wife was asked to volunteer at a Museum-on-the-Go event several years ago and couldn’t make it. Dolan, a father of two, stepped in and was impressed with what he saw. He knew that a lot of his colleagues were, like him, self-professed science geeks who love doing experiments with their own kids, so he began to recruit co-workers to lend a hand at events.
Dolan, also a member of Medtronic’s philanthropy council, which donates nearly $200,000 each year to organizations in Sonoma County, encouraged Michaud to apply for grant money. Since then, Medtronic has been a loyal supporter of the museum, both in money and time donated by employees. In 2011, a grant from Medtronic allowed Museum-on-the-Go to visit seven Sonoma County libraries as part of their annual summer reading program and funded the creation of a new exhibit. Dolan says Medtronic was drawn to the excitement and creativity inspired by the museum exhibits and the organization’s ability to reach large numbers of children. “We don’t need robots in our businesses, we need innovators,” he says. “Innovation begins with curiosity, and that’s what the Children’s Museum is all about—inspiring curiosity.”
Finding a home
Even with the success of Museum-on-the-Go, Michaud still faced the challenge of finding a location for the long-planned permanent museum. Nothing quite fit the bill…until a certain property in Northwest Santa Rosa became available. The 5,400-square-foot building sits on a large lot adjacent to the Charles M. Schulz Museum. The property is owned by Jean Schulz, widow of the late cartoonist, and is being leased to CMOSC at a reduced rate.
Schulz says she believes a museum for young children will be a wonderful use of the property. “This is an area with many young families and a spot where those families already come for activities,” she says. “The CMOSC’s new home, next door to the Schulz Museum and Snoopy’s Home Ice, will help create a wonderful synergy of complimentary activities, education and exploration.” Michaud believes the prominent location has already helped put CMOSC on the map. “Being located next to the Schulz Museum automatically positions us as a destination spot for tourists,” she says.
The two museums plan to collaborate as much as possible on classes and other visitor offerings. “The Children’s Museum will probably skew to a younger demographic,” predicts Schulz, “so between the ice arena, the Schulz Museum and CMOSC, we’ll have created a place where people of every age will be engaged, entertained and educated.”
The transformation begins
With additional support and encouragement from the Dows, the museum has already been able to complete master planning for the new site. Originally, the museum had planned to complete work on its interior spaces first and add exterior landscaping and exhibits as funding allowed. Those plans changed in 2010, when the museum was awarded a $1.8 million environmental education grant by the State Office of Grants and Local Services. The money will let CMOSC develop its nearly 40,000 square feet of outdoor space into “Mary’s Garden,” so named for mariposa, the Spanish word for butterfly. The garden space is dedicated to instilling a love of nature in children and teaching early lessons in sustainability and good environmental stewardship.
CMOSC is currently finalizing its exterior plans, but the extensive outdoor space is sure to give young children plenty of ways to touch, splash, run, climb and play, all while learning about the natural world. A large stage and open area is expected to be shared by CMOSC and the Schulz Museum and to be used for educational and cultural programs for the community. A very special addition to the butterfly-themed gardens will be “Ella’s Art Studio,” a cottage on the property that’s being transformed into a creative wonderland for children. The studio space is being sponsored by the Ella Bisbee Memorial Fund, which was created to honor an artistic, butterfly-loving girl from Petaluma who passed away in 2010.
The museum’s main indoor gallery space will host larger versions of some of Museum-on-the-Go’s most popular science-related exhibits, like the “Hopper Popper” that has children using their bodies to create just enough air pressure to move a ping pong ball up a tube and through a peg board maze, as well as a combination of new science experiments, local history displays and temporary exhibits on loan from other institutions. There will also be a toddler room, a small gift shop and a dedicated room for birthday parties.
The museum is continuing to work hard to raise the nearly $2 million necessary for building renovations and exhibit construction and has been hosting frequent events at the new site meant to educate and inspire the community. As part of a “Founding Families” program, the first 100 families to give a minimum $1,000 donation will be acknowledged in a permanent display at the museum. Michaud says 75 families have already stepped up to the plate. CMOSC will also begin preselling memberships this coming summer, though the price has yet to be determined. Revenue from hosting classes, camps and birthday parties will help supplement the operating costs not covered by admissions, memberships and donations. The museum is currently projecting about 40,000 visitors per year, made up of a combination of local families, school groups and tourists. There will likely be a limit to the size of groups coming in and the times they visit, so the relatively small interior space can remain welcoming to families.
The next chapter
Michaud says the time she spent designing software, often working with a single project for years through its conceptual and testing phases, unknowingly prepared her for the long timeline of starting a children’s museum. “My plan was always to give it at least five years,” she says. “I always knew the museum’s success was really up to the community, and all I could do was put it out there.”
When CMOSC officially opens next year, the children of Sonoma County and beyond will have a very special place in which to make their own discoveries at their own pace. Dolan believes the scientists of tomorrow will need experiences like these to prepare them for the challenges they’ll face. “Curiosity can’t be trained, it has to be inspired at a young age,” he says. “That’s what makes the Children’s Museum so valuable.”
Business to Schools Program
Businesses interested in bringing innovative, hands-on science education to local schools can sponsor a visit by Museum-on-the-Go and its staff. For a $1,000 donation, the museum will spend two days at an area school and touch the lives of roughly 225 children. Other levels of sponsorship are also available. Recently, Enphase Energy of Petaluma sponsored a program at McKinley Elementary in Petaluma to encourage an interest in science that may lead more children to pursue careers in the field. For more information about the Biz2Schools program, please contact Theresa Giacomino at theresa@cmosc.org.
