EverWonderful Family Day Will Support Future Newtown Museum

According to EverWonder Children’s Museum board president Kristin Chiriatti, the nonprofit organization focused on opening a children’s museum in Newtown will host an EverWonderful Family Day on Saturday, September 8, from 10 am to 3 pm, in the gymnasium of Edmond Town Hall at 45 Main Street. The event is an opportunity for children to take part in hands-on science and art activities, and see live performances, all a taste of what promoters envision for the future EverWonder Children’s Museum.

EverWonder Children’s Museum is an “emerging children’s museum in Newtown … aimed at children through the age of 12,” states an August 10 press release.

“The focus of EverWonder Children’s Museum is to promote curiosity and the enjoyment of learning in children,” Ms Chiriatti said in that press release. “This focus helped to drive our planning for our inaugural event. We want children to walk away excited about what they just did and saw. There will be something for everyone,” she said.

Planned activities include foaming monsters, sound sandwiches, membranophones, and pool noodle robots, with storytelling, sing-alongs, and science experiments scheduled throughout the day. Activity stations will encourage artistic expression, creativity and learning. Healthy, nut-free refreshments will be available for purchase.

“Right now, our goal is to get the community excited about the museum. In our infancy, we are essentially a museum without a building, so we must bring the museum to the community. We have dubbed this effort our Beyond the Building Campaign,” said Ms Chiriatti.

The museum presented a series of summer science workshops for young children at C.H. Booth Library, which were well received, and the board of directors plans to continue to host family friendly events to build awareness about EverWonder Children’s Museum.

Ms Chiriatti is also pleased to announce that the EverWonder Children’s Museum has recently received a $7,000 grant from the Jeniam Foundation, a Tennessee-based foundation that provides venture philanthropy to the arts, elder care, and education in Connecticut and Tennessee. The grant will allow the EverWonder board of directors to fund a feasibility study to determine if the new venture will be successful.

“Among other things,” said Ms Chiriatti in an August 9 press release, “this feasibility study for EverWonder will give the organization valuable information about the characteristics of potential visitors, competitors, and the level of interest in the museum. We are thrilled that the Jeniam Foundation came forward to support our efforts.”

Tripp Killin, executive director of The Jeniam Foundation, said the foundation is excited to be an early funder of the EverWonder Children’s Museum project.

EverWonder Children’s Museum has raised $15,000 through private donations to date, of an estimated $4.5 million it will take to build the museum. Claris Construction of Newtown has finished the first draft of plans for the museum, said Ms Chiriatti. The group is actively pursuing space at Fairfield Hills, and hopes for a 2015 opening.

Major sponsors for the September 8 event are Vasi’s Gymnastics and the Wesley Learning Center of Newtown, and the national Happy Family foods brand.

For more information, e-mail info@everwondermuseum.com or visit www.everwondermuseum.com.