Contributions so far for Quincy Children’s Museum project ‘amazing’

QUINCY — The fundraising goal of the Quincy Children’s Museum has changed … and it hasn’t.

The museum board announced in May it had a fundraising goal of $150,000. That figure would be achieved by getting 50 people or families to make a minimum $1,000 contribution, as well as 50 businesses or groups to make a minimum $2,000 contribution.

Rather than aiming for a dollar figure, museum organizers are focusing on finding more contributors.

“The contributions we’ve received so far, it’s amazing,” said Amy Peters, president of the Quincy Children’s Museum board. “We probably should have asked for more (of a minimum).”

Peters says seven businesses have agreed to be part of the museum’s “Founding 50,” and 21 families have made a similar donation. Funding from the Founding 50 will support efforts related to site selection, building design, exhibit development, marketing and community outreach.

Plans are for the children’s museum to have an educational focus with interactive, imaginative, creative and open ended activities. Organizers have offered temporary exhibits since June at local events, schools, festivals and youth-focused organizations. Those events have been the first public look at the long-term plans to establish what the organization will look like.

“We did five events, and we had more than 1,000 kiddos participate with our activities,” Peters said. “And it was great. The kids loved it. We had a lot of great feedback in conversation with people. With new events and opportunities on the horizon, we’ve got some fun things coming up this fall that we’re going to be participating in.”

Three events are scheduled in October. Two of them are on Oct. 2 — one at the Quincy Brewing Company from noon to 5 p.m., and one at the Be Like Grace Run/Walk from 5-10 p.m. The other is a family night at Autumn Harvest Farms in West Quincy, Mo., on Oct. 29.

The museum’s site selection committee is “seriously considering” three properties.

“We have a checklist of things that we’re looking for, and some different properties have presented themselves as opportunities,” Peters said. “So we’re trying to kind of explore all of those opportunities right now. We have three major prospects, but we also don’t want to leave any opportunity off the table. There might be someone who hasn’t heard about us yet and might have something to offer us.”

Peters hopes for a site selection in early 2022. She also wants to wrap up the Founding 50 campaign by the end of 2021.

“That way we can move on to a different campaign for our site,” she said. 

The Quincy project is considered an “emerging children’s museum” by the National Association of Children’s Museums, a professional society with more than 460 members in 50 states and 19 countries that supports and advocates on behalf of children’s museums worldwide.