Thanks to the grassroots effort of local volunteers, Rutland opened a year round Farmer’s market and agriculture center last fall as well as a new multi use bike path through the city. The latest goal? A children’s museum. Organizers say it’s closer than ever to being a reality.
Myra Peffer and Chris Ettorie stand in an empty storefront across from the Paramount Theatre.
“Well we’re going to open this up- so the idea is to take out these walls and make it as open as possible,” Peffer says.
Peffer heads a group of volunteers working to open a children’s museum in Rutland.
“It actually is an initiative of Creative Economy and it came out of a forum over at the Paramount- people just said, what do you want in Rutland? That was the question. And this is one of the things that came out of it was a children’s museum - that’s how it got started,” she explains.
That was in 2010. Peffer was asked to head up the effort because of her previous experience working at an Ohio Science Museum as well as a stint as Director of Education at the Akron Ohio Zoo. She says temporary space in downtown Rutland was donated for the project and with lots of local help, Wonderfeet children’s museum debuted in 2011.
“And we opened some exhibits there just for Friday Night Live and it was very successful - we raised about $10,000 for that summer and we were able to build some exhibits and open the doors and have it for free and then we did the same thing last year.”
Peffer says they had a lot of simple machines kids could play with like levers and inclined planes and they worked with Efficiency Vermont to create solar cars, energy bikes and hand crank generators.
“We did a food to farm kind of map where kids could go around Rutland County and make a meal on a map we created.”
Chris Ettori says although they were only open in the summer from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. on Friday, they had more than 3,000 visitors their first two seasons.
“We really developed a following. People were really interested in coming longer term and people would ask, “oh, do you do birthday parties, when are you open in the fall? And so we saw there’s a real need for that - so we’ve been working to find a space that we could open three or four days a week and develop some other exhibits.”
Ettori says they lucked out when another downtown space was made available to them at no charge. Green Mountain Power donated $20,000 last fall, which Myra Peffer says will help them apply for a matching grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
She says they’ve raised an additional $15,000 from other local sources and will host a citywide fundraiser. That money she says will be used to renovate their new location and create new, more elaborate exhibits.
“I feel like Rutland has a rich history and we can focus on things that happen in this area for topics forever.” Peffer said.
Like having a mini marble quarry that kids can operate or developing activities tied to the railroad. They’ve also asked General Electric to design some robotics activities. If all goes well, Peffer says they hope to open their new space in July.
Paul Gallo, President of Rutland’s Creative Economy Initiative says Wonderfeet Children’s museum will not be a Montshire or an ECHO Center - at least not for a while. But he says it will be a great place to bring kids and provide another economic boost for downtown Rutland. Pretty impressive he says considering it’s a completely volunteer effort.
