By Kylie Balk Yaatenen - November 18th 2024
JANESVILLE
The Children’s Museum of Rock County plans to start construction in the spring at the site of a former bank on West Milwaukee Street after raising $11.5 million, the organization announced Monday.
That exceeds the future museum’s $10 million Let’s PLAY Together capital campaign goal. In a release, the nonprofit museum said it will continue to fundraise, to make the future operation the best it can be.
Funds raised will be used to renovate the former Chase bank at 100 W. Milwaukee Street into a children’s museum, demolishing the former drive-thru addition and constructing a new addition while maintaining the historic anchor building.
Construction is expected to take 10 to 13 months, with the goal of opening in 2026. An executive director is expected to be hired in 2025.
John Westphal, the board president and capital campaign chair, noted that while the capital campaign was launched in September 2022, the idea of a children’s museum in Janesville has been 17 years in the making.
In an interview, Westphal said he is thrilled with the support the capital campaign has seen in the community, for a museum where children will have a wide variety of diverse opportunities to learn through play.
Westphal said the campaign has progressed in spurts, admittedly not always as fast as he would have liked it to go.
However, “I have always been confident that we would construct the museum,” he said, and expressed that to potential donors.
Announcing a date for the start of construction “is more gratifying than I can put into words,” Westphal continued. “To confirm this is very satisfying.”
In the release Monday, Westphal said the goal “is to have the exterior of the bank look like the day it was built, while inside, it will look like a modern children’s museum.”
“The depth of our work on the exterior of the bank will be based, in part, on how much money we raise and can devote to that part of the project,” he added.
In August, the Children’s Museum of Rock County announced its choice of JP Cullen of Janesville as the general contractor, emphasizing the importance of hiring a construction manager to finalize the design within its capital budget.
The fundraising effort has included raising more than $1 million from the Rock County and greater Wisconsin agriculture community to incorporate a larger agriculture experience.
The museum will have three major exhibits that reflect Rock County and its identity: agriculture, the Rock River, and innovative manufacturing.
“Our board, and our supporters in the county’s agribusiness community, would like to make our agriculture exhibit the best and most significant of its kind in any children’s museum in the entire U.S. We want to teach kids, and their families, where their food comes from, and to have fun learning about it,” Westphal said.
“Our county’s agribusiness friends –farmers/producers, equipment suppliers, vendors, grain elevators, lenders, trade associations, marketers, retailers — have all generously participated in our campaign,” he continued.
“We are still amazed by the unbelievable generosity of our neighbors here in Rock County,” Westphal also said. “Over the past two years, I have been present when that donor handed me a big check or confirmed a large pledge. It is special for the donor, and special for me.”
Westphal said the museum board expects to hear back by mid-January on additional funding sources it is pursuing.
As part of a special “Gift of PLAY” campaign during the holiday season, those who make a donation by Dec. 31 in honor of someone will receive a custom certificate to present as a gift.
The museum has also secured a sponsor for a $10,000 matching grant on Giving Tuesday, Tuesday, Dec. 3.
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