MALDEN MUSEUM TO OPEN

MALDEN -- Dr. Ray Vandiver's job is child's play -- literally.

Vandiver, executive director of a new children's museum in Malden, studied creative play so he could design and build many of the displays and exhibits at the museum. A degree in experimental physics probably helped too.

The Bootheel Youth Museum, 700A N. Douglas, will hold its grand opening Saturday from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. Admission is $1 per person. The museum will be open on weekends only until May 26.

Its goal is to let children discover their interests by letting them see firsthand how things work, Vandiver said. It is modeled after the Magic House in St. Louis and Memphis Children's Museum.

When they enter the 10,000-square-foot area, visitors decide whether to explore pendulums, optical illusions, laser light shows, a working grocery store or to climb aboard a 1927 fire truck. There is even a kaliedescope and a giant bubble visitors can climb into.

"Everything is kids' size," Vandiver said. "It's structured to maximize role-playing. Basically it's an attempt to work with math, science, natural resources, art and music to stimulate and make them curious and expose them to ideas so they discover their own interests."

Another goal is to bridge the technology gap and show children firsthand how things work and the latest in technology.

"Basically, the museum started at a bridge party with three Malden-area women who had recent experience with children's museums in major cities," Vandiver said. "They decided children here should have the same advantages as children in major cities."

The party was held six years ago and the museum has been a dream for Virginia Heise, Carol Demaree and Pat Morehead since. The women began asking for support throughout the community through fund-raising activities and parties. Malden businesses were able to redirect their tax dollars to help support the museum. The Missouri Department of Economic Development oversees the neighborhood assistance program.

"It's like an indirect state grant," Vandiver said. "It promotes businesses to get involved with community betterment."

The neighborhood assistance program helped raise $160,000 for building renovations.

"It's exciting, because when I first got here it was an empty warehouse," Vandiver said. "I've seen it emerge from the ground up."

The museum shares a former Pepsi-Cola Bottling plant with the Bootheel Education Center.

Education is key for the traveling museum operated as an extension of the Bootheel Youth Museum. For the last two years, the museum has taken exhibits to schools in a 100-mile radius and offered classes to about 1,200 students. The classes have covered topics like why mosquitoes buzz, electricity and magnetism.

For more information about the museum or to schedule a classroom visit call 573-276-3600.