The Blue Ridge Children’s Museum is hoping to open its doors in Waynesboro this summer with exhibits, a toddler space and more.
The effort, which began in 2017, has taken considerably more time than originally planned due to construction costs which tripled after COVID.
To date, the organization has raised $125,000 through grants, fundraising events, programs and private donations.
Founder and Board President Karen Orlando told AFP the plan is to complete the front half of the 4,000-square-foot facility by summer, and then to raise additional funds to complete the designs for the building.
The museum is located at 201 Short Street, next to Stone Soup Books, and the two entities have already collaborated on special events and story times for the community.
When BRCM opens, Orlando said, it will feature rotating exhibits that will be open to families and offer programs and activities on a regular basis. She’d also love to squeeze in a summer camp if everything is finished on schedule.
“Over the winter, we started the renovation process and are doing all the ugly stuff underground: connecting the sewer line and water line and all that kind of stuff, getting the electrical things ready to support what we’ll have in the building.”
She said that part of the work is done but there’s still some finishing stuff to complete: digging, connecting the electrical and a sidewalk.
“We are switching gears to the inside and working on the HVAC and getting the drywall in and all of that fun stuff,” she said. “We have the whole thing mapped out and have a whole plan of what the exhibits will be and how they’ll be laid out. I’m really excited about that.”
Community has played a big part in work
The monies raised throughout the years have helped the museum purchase materials for activities and exhibits, renovate the exterior of the building and get work under way inside.
They’ve received funds from the Community Foundation of the Central Blue Ridge, Kiwanis, Rotary and the City of Waynesboro.
“If anybody has ever participated in a program and paid for that program, all of those payments have been considered donations,” she said. “Every penny that we have raised through programming, through our Lantern Walk, it’s all gone into this renovation project.
“It’s been a combination of us kind of scraping along, getting as much money as we can into our little savings account, and now we’re spending it,” Orlando said.
The funds also helped the museum build its natural playground which is already being utilized on a regular basis. The playground is open to the public from from dawn to dusk and includes building logs, a rock slide, a flower garden, community mural, outdoor kitchen and more.
The inspiration for BRCM
When Orlando moved to Waynesboro from Massachusetts, her children were two and five.
“There just wasn’t a lot to do in this area,” she said. “We love it here, but we had to drive to Charlottesville or Harrisonburg or Lynchburg to really find any activities for our kids.”
Her background is in special education, and the idea of a children’s museum germinated while brainstorming ideas for a business plan through Grow Waynesboro. The Grow Waynesboro initiative aims to find, fund and support community entrepreneurs through training, resources and competitive grants.
“Our goal with this museum is to make it accessible to all children, regardless of language, regardless of abilities,” she said. “We want to make sure that everybody can come to this museum and have an awesome experience, have a great takeaway from it and want to come back for more.”
“It’s really important that each exhibit, each activity that we do, is meaningful. All children learn differently and experience things differently, and so we want to have sensory input and visual cues.”
Orlando is hoping that opening the doors will provide the spark needed to generate volunteers and raise the funds needed to complete the building.
“I’m hoping that once people get in there and see what it is, they’re going to want more, and then we’ll be able to pretty quickly bust out that back half [of the building].
“We’re really excited to get this place open so people can see it and get excited to really start donating at a bigger level.
“I’m just full of ideas of things that we could have, both on the playground and in the building. Even the location of it makes me so excited, having it by the Greenway and the river and the amount of programming that we can do so that children and families can learn about all the amazing things we have right here in our own back yard.”
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Crystal Graham
