Chase Lumber and Sun Prairie Children’s Museum Community Project
EXPLORING OPPORTUNITIES BRINGS A COMMUNITY TOGETHER. AND A MUSEUM TO LIFE.
The Sun Prairie Explore Children’s Museum was an idea born in 2019 by Sun Prairie moms who saw a need to have a community space for kids to learn, explore and engage in creativity, shared learning, critical thinking and fun through purposeful play.
Armed with extensive backgrounds in education, the founders reached out to potential community partners for help in bringing this wonderful idea to life.
The first priority, as with any endeavor such as this, was to raise the capital needed. And in true fashion of an idea that encourages creativity, a creative idea was proposed. Have students from Sun Prairie High School build Aldo Leopold benches, give them to artists to paint, install them throughout Sun Prairie parks, then auction them off with all proceeds going to the Children’s Museum. In the summer of 2020 that’s exactly what happened, with all lumber for the project donated by Chase Lumber to help maximize the proceeds of each bench.
As support continued to rise and resources flowed in from all corners of our community, the Children’s Museum was set to move into its new space in 2021. Which meant the building and installation of carefully and thoughtfully planned activities and features. One of which is a sprawling set of activities in a structure known as the “Exploratorium”. And thus came another opportunity for Chase Lumber to partner with the Children’s Museum through the donation of the lumber required to construct this engaging feature.
In just two years, the dream of providing a place to help in both the mental and physical development of children by engaging in play became a reality. Making the Sun Prairie Explore Children’s Museum a shining example of how an idea creates opportunities, opportunities inspire connections and connections deliver growth and success. Which is exactly the intended experience for each child and adult who comes to visit.
PROUD OF OUR COMMUNITY, HONORED TO PLAY A PART.
Thank you to everyone at the Sun Prairie Explore Children’s Museum for your vision, passion and dedication, and to all throughout our community who helped open the doors to this important space.
