The Little Buckeye Museum located on 44 West Fourth Street celebrate their third year in operation this weekend. In addition to the annual “birthday” celebration, a new and final exhibit opened on Saturday.
The museum first opened in April of 2011 and has since expanded their space to the upstairs portion of the building, which is where the new exhibit is located. The new exhibit was sponsored and built by the Mansfield Optimist Club, a local group who advocates for healthy youth education and extracurricular activities.
Second Vice President of the Mansfield Noon Optimist Club Dick Henson said they recently asked the museum how they could help. The answer allowed them to sponsor and build an “imagination playground” for around five thousand dollars.
“I think it’s going to be a neat place,” he shared. “The room used to be a storage room or something like that but we were able to turn it into something great for the kids,” continued Henson.
According to board member Brooke Henwood, The Little Buckeye’s Museum started with a vision that local community members had for children. Many community groups contributed to the construction and sponsorship of the museum.
“A few local people just wanted to have something for children to do, to be interactive, and to play and have fun close to home,” said Henwood.
On its first grand opening, the museum showcased its first floor, filled with different interactive and educational exhibits geared toward youth. The following year they were able to open the second floor to the youth, where more exhibits were made accessible. This year, the final room, which used to be used as storage, was transformed into an imagination playground.
The imagination playground, officially known as the “Friends of Youth Room,” is a room full of blue. The floor is a blue foam-pad; the walls are painted blue. Even the foam shapes and objects are blue. In this blue room, youth are encouraged to build whatever pops into their imagination with these objects. On Saturday, they built a dinosaur, a castle, and an unnamed abstraction that resembled a real live Picasso painting. Anything is possible in the imagination playground.
Based on the response of intrigued children and adults, Henwood reported the room as “a hit.”
“It’s good to see the kids enjoy it. And it’s always busy here (the museum). This place is such a great asset to the community of Mansfield,” said board member of the Optimist Club Charles Hootman.
The Little Buckeye Museum will be celebrating their third “birthday party” through the weekend. For more information, check out their website or call 419-522-2332.
For more about how the museum got started, read our July 2013 story.
