Over 25 years ago, two local schoolteachers recognized the importance of learning outside the classroom. They started what would become the Children’s Discovery Museum in a dentist’s office. The dentist’s chair and other equipment were used by the kids for playacting dentist and patient, but also actually learning the tools of the trade and the fundamentals of dentistry.
Olga Trehub
“That is still the mission of the museum,” says Cindy Burreson, the institution’s CEO. “We’re dedicated to kids, and kids and their families experiencing the joy of learning through hands-on exploration.”
Burreson says that early benefactors such as Dick Oliphant and Betty Barker helped take the museum to the next stage by establishing interactive kiosks at the mall. The different experiences on offer helped drive up community interest and early fundraising successes. Among the most important of these was the gift of 6.5 acres by Walter and Leonore Annenberg. Burreson says the cove communities of Indian Wells, Palm Desert, and Rancho Mirage were, and continue to be, among the museum’s most stalwart benefactors. The Annenbergs and President Gerald and Betty Ford were at the groundbreaking.
Burreson came to the Valley in 2005 to work in the hospitality and immediately became involved in various community organizations. The mother of an eleven and thirteen-year-old, her children grew up in the museum and she claims to have “around eight hundred photos of them here. It’s always been impactful on our family and on their learning and our togetherness…I always wanted to be involved with the museum.”
She was finally able to come on board in September 2020. “The worst time,” she admits.
The museum was not only closed because of the pandemic. We were financially distraught. They let go of the entire executive staff…there was some feeling that we really might close for good.”
“At the next meeting, the board said, ‘We’re looking for someone to be interim director, 20 hours a week, flush toilets, pay the bills, whatever.’ I said, ‘I can flush toilets like nobody’s business and I live right down the street.”
Burreson thought long and hard about the impact the museum had had on her family and the community and she was determined to see it rise from the ashes. She gathered the original designers and asked what would be involved in creating new and improved exhibits, new experiences. She went back the board and said, “Ok, I have this crazy idea. What if we take this opportunity to reimagine the museum? We take this time to fundraise like we never have before. You need to hire a CEO, so you should hire me because I will get it done. I think they thought, ‘Well, if anyone can get it done, it’s this crazy chick, so let’s give her a shot’.”
It didn’t happen overnight.
“As a mom, I wanted it to look and feel more like a kid’s museum,” she says. “It’s a beautiful building, aesthetically and architecturally, but maybe it lacked color and joy. And a kid vibe. So I worked with the designers. We’ve on calls every week together for the last two and a half years.” Burreson says some of the crowd favorites like the grocery store and the pizza place are still in place…though they’ve been refreshed so they feel more modern. Sadly, the Volkswagen bug that you could paint has been replaced, but Burreson has been extremely careful not to simply replace old exhibits with technology. “We are keeping a lot of technology out of the museum but kids are already inundated with technology. We’re incorporating things that encourage physical activity. Expression and creativity are the lenses around which everything has been designed.”
It has been four years between the closing of the museum and its reopening this memorial day. Burreson admits that it has been stressful…mainly from other Valley moms and grandparents who buttonhole her, demanding to know when she’s going to reopen. “The pent up demand…the impatience and excitement just goes to show the importance of this place. It’s not a luxury. Believe me, as a mom, I understand the frustration. But it takes a long time to build 40 new, unique, custom exhibits and to raise $3 million. And just like any construction project, there are delays, and supply issues, and labor shortages. But now I see the light at the end of the tunnel.”
That first light took place at the end of March when the museum hosted a two week Spring camp for kids called Guardian of the Green, and revolved around environmental stewardship. The trucks began arriving in April to begin the installations. This month, Burreson expects have several ‘soft opening’ events, with the grand reopening to take place over Memorial weekend. An additional two sections, the toddler section and the sensory friendly section, will open by July. By midsummer all four sections—called Imagine, Move, Express and Experiment—will be fully open.
OLga Trehub
As with the museum of the past, the exhibits are target to kids zero to eight-years-old, but Burreson says that plans are in motion to re-purpose the second building of the museum toward table-top scientific experiments which will serve eight to twelve-year-olds and she has already started fundraising efforts so that the third building will be geared toward middle and high school kids. Burreson says the activities in the teenagers’ building will include public speaking, sewing, embroidery, financial literacy, and life skills such as how to apply for a job or change a tire.
The museum has under Burreson’s direction has also made sure that full accessibility is part of the mix. There is a certified autism center and a sensory room that serves as a calming room for when kids have meltdowns or get over-stimulated. She was given an accessibility grant in order to create an sandbox accessible to kids in wheelchairs and adaptive trikes for use on the trike track. And there will be American sign language interpreters for all the story times.
Burreson is quick to point out that the museum is not a babysitter. The exhibits are designed for parents to participate and engage along with their children. Still, she has noticed in the past that the museum has been a great place for parents to meet, exchange information about their parenting journeys, and support each other. “The museum is not only an incredible place for kids,” she says. “It is also a haven for parents.”
