Downtown Rutland’s children’s museum has won a grant, and area families will reap the benefits. The Bowse Health Trust, a department of the Rutland Regional Medical Center, has awarded Wonderfeet Kids’ Museum a three-year grant to provide outreach programs to nine organizations that serve young children.
Wonderfeet will use the money to hire a part-time education coordinator to help set up activities that nurture parenting, paternal involvement, kindergarten readiness, nutrition and health curricula, and exposure to STEM — science, technology, engineering and math — education. Partners include Prevent Child Abuse Vermont, WIC, Head Start, Eckerd Kids family services, Rutland Free Library, and the Boys & Girls Club.
“This grant helps to position the museum as a leader in creating a healthy community,” Wonderfeet executive director Myra Peffer said. The museum will get $43,000 this year and lesser amounts the next two years. People may not think of a children’s museum as a place that serves a community, Peffer said, but when you’re working with families with limited resources, a children’s museum provides social services: “It’s beyond a fun place to go with your kids on a rainy day.”
Wonderfeet Kids’ museum is located at 11 Center Street in Rutland.
This article was originally published in Seven Days’ monthly parenting magazine, Kids VT.
This article appears in Kids VT, February 2016.
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