BOOTHEEL MUSEUM EXPANDS, GETS AWARD

MALDEN -- One of the most popular exhibits at the Bootheel Youth Museum is the Children's Village, which currently consists of a child-sized bank and grocery store.

In a process expected to last through the end of 1999, the village will grow to include a firehouse, car garage, a newspaper, a post office, a utility company, a feed and seed store, a recycling center, a fast-food restaurant and a health center.

The project is part of an expansion that is doubling the museum's size and includes a 180-seat children's theater to be completed at the end of July.

The expansion to 20,000 square feet comes as the museum celebrates winning a 1998 Hometown Pride Award from Midwest Living magazine. The museum is one of 16 projects throughout the Midwest honored by the magazine.

Opened in 1996 on $160,000 raised through a program sponsored by the Missouri Department of Economic Development, the museum was nominated in the economic development category. Each of the winners will receive $1,000 and recognition in the magazine's October issue.

The museum contains hands-on displays meant to give children experiences that show how things work. A popular exhibit, the Bubble Tire, employs a tractor tire and hula hoop to create a soap bubble large enough to surround a child. Another is the Sewer Pipe Symphony, a collection of eight curved pipes that produce the notes of an octave when struck with a paddle.

With a $120,000 annual budget, the museum prides itself on concocting its own exhibits, even those that are copied from other museums.

"We don't go out and buy stuff; we make it," says Lorraine Heiser, the museum's administrative assistant. Museum director Dr. Ray Vandiver, whose Ph.D. is in experimental physics, created many of the physical science exhibits himself.

Heiser was watching a 3-year-old boy and an 8-year-old girl at the museum's tug-o'-war exhibit, which illustrates the physics behind pulleys. The boy was on the side with the pulleys and thus had six times her power.

"She doesn't have a chance," Heiser said.

The museum operates with a staff of three full-time employees, two part-timers and a group of volunteers. Most museums of the same size have a staff of 12 full-time workers, Heiser said.

The museum is supported through memberships, grants, corporate contributions and admission fees. To help pay the bills, admission is being increased to $4 general and $3 for members of a group.

The museum opened in March 1996 in a former soft drink bottling plant shared with the Bootheel Education Center. By this October officials expect to welcome their 50,000th visitor. Between 20,000 and 25,000 people are expected to attend this year alone.

Most are from Southeast Missouri and Northern Arkansas, but people from 34 states and nine foreign countries have visited. Most are on school field trips.

The museum also has traveling exhibits that go to schools within a 100-mile radius.

Heiser said the theater will present puppet shows, storytellers and musical performances. A Suzuki group from Dexter already has performed on the stage.

The museum's location in the economically depressed Bootheel gives children experiences many wouldn't otherwise have. And a trip to the museum is something most schools can afford, Heiser said.

He said: "The classroom is getting more hands-on, and that's exactly what we're focused on. We want kids to get interested in what's beyond their own front yard. We want to show them what's out there."