Children's Mobile Museum to visit McCook Jone 8-9

McCOOK, Neb. — The Children’s Mobile Museum will be in McCook June 8-9 for Nebraska’s 150th birthday as well as McCook’s 130th.

It will be in the newly refurbished city parking lot, East First and D in McCook.

It will be open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday, June 8, and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday, June 9.

Admission is free and the public is encouraged to attend. While exhibits are intended for children ages 5-12, audiences of all ages are welcome. All visitors 16 and under must be accompanied by an adult.

The McCook Area Chamber of Commerce is seeking volunteers to help Truckin’ Through Nebraska provide an unique, entertaining and unforgettable learning experience to children living in areas of the state without their own children’s museum.

To sign up, visit the chamber website at www.mccookchamber.org/events

First Lady Susanne Shore said, “We created the Mobile Children’s Museum to provide a fun, hands-on learning experience for children who may not normally be able to easily access a children’s museum. Through play, interactivity and the latest technology, Nebraska’s children will explore their heritage and envision their futures. We hope the experience will help power the imagination and create an excitement about learning.”

The Mobile Children’s Museum is contained in a 53-foot state-of-the-art custom air-ride, double-expandable trailer that is specially designed and outfitted for traveling museum exhibits. The unit is climate controlled, has GPS tracking, Wi-Fi, its own generator and is ADA accessible.

Interior exhibits include areas where kids will build shelters and test them in a wind chamber or earthquake simulator, design their own 10-acre homestead, test their knowledge of Nebraska, create their own movie, explore toys from the past, craft their own postcards and more.

Exhibits will also surround the exterior of the trailer, allowing for optimal play and learning space. Those exhibits will include a timed “chore” challenge obstacle course, foam block invention area, toy creation station and more.

The Mobile Children’s Museum was launched on a 26-week, 42 community tour in early April from the Omaha Children’s Museum, which partnered with the Nebraska150 Celebration on the project. It will conclude in October.

Shore added, “We could not have accomplished this enormous undertaking without the support and guidance of the Omaha Children’s Museum. We are incredibly grateful for their partnership and the expertise they brought to the project.”

Omaha Children’s Museum Executive Director Lindy Hoyer said, “We serve the metropolitan area well, and we saw this mobile museum as a great opportunity to stretch our mission across the state. We wanted to work with the Nebraska150 Celebration to help create the mobile museum because it was a great opportunity to engage young children and their families in these communities. I grew up in a small town in Nebraska, and I know how something like this can energize an entire community.”

The exhibit will be in Imperial June 11-12.