Each of us on the board has their own story of how we all came together - and their own reasons for devoting many hours to this effort. My own is the only story I know well enough to tell here but maybe in the future I can convince some other volunteers to share as well. Maybe some of our readers want to share their stories?
I married into a large family - my ManOfTheHouse is the second of 11 children - so family reunions tend to be a little on the noisy side. With nephews and nieces ranging in age from 6 days to 22 years we also have a few difficulties in choosing activities that will keep everyone busy! If you have ever been to a Utah amusement park or hiking trail and wondered who those 50+ people are and why they are wearing matching t-shirts, you may have seen us. We tend to attract a little bit of attention :)
One year the reunion schedule included a visit to the Salt Lake Children's Museum (which has since moved). Our family, clad in bright yellow shirts, descended on the museum and we expected that within the hour there would be at least one cousin screaming, one needing to be fed, and three climbing the walls.
The climbing the walls was true - as a matter of fact, most of them were scaling the climbing wall as quickly as possible! Others were intrigued with water play, my son fell in love with lizards, and even the oldest of the cousins had to be dragged out of the shadow room! Having grown up near the Denver Children's Museum I remembered how much fun it had been as a child. As an early childhood teacher I had taken groups to similar places in Colorado and Kansas - they'd loved it as well... but seeing this HUGE group from a parental perspective... lit a fire for me. Seeing the variety of activities keeping all ages interested, seeing families work together and have fun together... that's what I loved. I wanted to bring something like this to St George!
Over the next few years I visited more children's museums and met other local people with a similar dream - some of whom had already laid some groundwork - and the more we looked, the more people we found. People who were interested in creating something unique for our community that we (the committee and our local families) could all be a part of.
So many things are happening thanks to this group - I am thrilled to tell you that our 501c3 non-profit status is official! This may seem like a small thing but it has started the ball rolling... good things are coming soon! Exciting exhibits are in the works and we can hardly wait to share them with you. Unfortunately we do have to wait a little while longer - but just a little while!!
