Behind The Scenes The Much-Anticipated Grand Opening Of The Children’S Museum Is Right Around The Corner. Here’S A Look At Some Of The People Helping To Turn That Dream Into Reality

There are only 15 days until the Children’s Museum opens, and Mary Brandt needs every one of them.

As project leader coordinating renovations to the museum’s new site in downtown Spokane, Brandt is working with builders and designers, contractors and union laborers, board members and museum staff.

The renovations in the two-story building across from River Park Square are nearly complete, paving the way for children to learn about art, science and world cultures through playful exhibits.

Organizers are working to ensure that by the grand opening June 30, the only missing ingredient in their hands-on museum is the noise of excited children.

Behind the museum’s colorful exhibits, new carpet, fresh paint and whimsical signs are hundreds of volunteers who have given money, materials, expertise and above all, time. Brandt estimates that more than 300 men, women and children have volunteered to make the project a success.

“The grass-roots support of this project shows that Spokane is a hands-on community,” says Brandt.

By the time the Children’s Museum opens, there will be numerous stories of those who have heart-crafted the community museum. Here are a few.

Andrew Baucom is a potter by trade, but on a recent Wednesday he looked more like a bricklayer. On the asphalt parking lot next to his ceramics studio, Art By Yourself, Baucom was meticulously arranging 600 earthenware tiles side-by-side, end-to-end. When the layout is finished, he will mount the tiles in a Founding Members mural to hang in the entrance to the Children’s Museum.

Over the last year, Baucom has managed the tile project, inviting museum founding members (those who bought memberships in 1996) to his studio, or carting tiles and paints to numerous community events. The resulting mural is a slice of Inland Northwest life. Each tile tells a story known only to its creator. There are kites, lilacs, musical notes and animals; a yellow smiley face, a bright red barn. A smudged pair of chubby hands is obviously the work of an excited toddler; a perfectly painted Bloomsday runner reveals an older artist’s touch. Five memorial tiles are part of the mural, a tribute to lives that were cut short.

Baucom is waiving his labor costs on the mural, and a portion of the material costs, a contribution of $3,000. “I did it because I live in Spokane, I have a child, and I love kids. They’re my best clients.”

Terry Goebel knows several people involved with the Children’s Museum who urged him to work on the renovation project. But the birth of his son Graham, now 5 months old, clinched Goebel’s decision to become the site’s general contractor, waiving his contracting fees worth $30,000.

“You can’t turn down a true kids’ cause,” says Goebel, vice president of RB Goebel General Contractor Inc. “(Graham) just reinforced everything.”

For the building to become a children’s museum, Goebel’s challenge was to make the structure meet stricter codes.

Goebel’s second task has been to design and construct the grass-roots museum on a shoe-string budget. For three months he studied the site design and whittled down costs to bring the bottom line into an affordable range. Then he began recruiting volunteer labor.

“It usually took one phone call,” Goebel says. “There are so many people in this project that have been so generous, it’s difficult to acknowledge them all. The community really deserves the accolades.”

Vibrant reds, rich blues and deep hues is how Steve Black describes the new site of the Children’s Museum of Spokane. His company, Black’s Painting, is donating labor and materials to paint the museum, worth $5,000.

“I’m a late bloomin’ dad,” says Black, 52, who took his 9-year-old son to the temporary site two years ago. “I look at children today and they are so eager and bright. They need places like this.”

Black gives credit to Rob Mitchell, his foreman, who solicited paint suppliers to donate dozens of gallons of paint to the project. Black’s contribution to the Children’s Museum is his way of giving back to Spokane, “a city that’s been very good to me for 30 years,” he says.

Stella De Barros has lived in Spokane for only a year, yet before she was barely unpacked she got involved with the Children’s Museum, a place for young people that will “open up their little eyes to the world around them,” she says.

De Barros took her daughters, Jennifer, 7, and Kaitlin, 4, to the children’s museum in Austin, Tex., and is delighted they will have one in their new community.

De Barros spends several hours a week on the phone as volunteer coordinator for the organization. She recruits students, professionals, parents, senior citizens and youth groups to help with community events sponsored by the Children’s Museum.

Recently, De Barros has worked nonstop to enlist 80 volunteers to help with the grand opening. If you enjoy interacting with kids, she may already have your number.

Eight-month old Marika is the biggest reason Bruce Morelin, president of Spokane Electrical Services Co., agreed to donate 100 hours of labor and project management worth $5,000.

Spokane Electrical Services has outfitted the museum with electrical power and lighting, fire alarm and security systems, says Tony DeStefano, Morelin’s project manager.

DeStefano looks forward to watching young museum visitors move giant-size boulders with the “Big Dig” hydraulic crane. “Most of my grandchildren are past museum age,” says DeStefano, “but I have one great-grandchild in the hopper.” Will he be taking his new great grandbaby to the museum? DeStefano smiles. “If I live that long.”

“I tried to give as much money as I could,” says 8-year old Peter Miller, regarding his cash donation to the Children’s Museum.

Three dollars was all Miller had in his piggy bank when volunteers called his home during a fund-raiser. The second-grader from Wilson Elementary enthusiastically emptied the bank and sent in the money.

“I used my savings and allowance, and I did a few extra chores for my brother,” Miller says. His donation was touching to museum organizers - “It just about made me want to cry,” said one staff member.

Miller can’t wait to play in the museum’s water room. “Kids can learn a lot of stuff while they’re playing,” he says. “Even grown-ups learn stuff to figure out.”

DONATE OR VOLUNTEER The Children’s Museum of Spokane, 110 N. Post, will open to museum members June 30, and to the public July 1, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Seventy percent of the museum’s capital campaign goal has been raised in cash pledges and donated services, says Mary Douthitt, director of funding, yet donations are still needed to complete the renovations and ensure the museum’s operations. Donations may be sent to: Children’s Museum of Spokane, P.O. Box 461, Spokane, WA 99210. Interested in volunteering? Call 624-0435 and leave your name and number.