GREAT FALLS — Give Great Falls has given nonprofits an opportunity for the community to give to their favorite organization.
One of those organizations we talked with Thursday was the Children's Museum of Montana. This museum is a place where kids can come and enjoy productive, interactive, and educational activities year-round. For the organization this year, it has been especially hard with COVID-19 not allowing for them to have their regular fundraisers.
Joslin Knightstep, who's the administrative assistant, said, "It's been great for us to raise the money we have had to cancel all our spring fundraisers due to this COVID-19 business, but it does allow us to collect funds."
She explained, "We're very fortunate to have some great community connections here in town. One of the big ones that we wanted to accomplish when we weren't sure how long we'd be in quarantine here was updating our fort exhibit into the treehouse. Thankfully, Home Depot was willing to donate some flooring in there for us. So that's one big update. I know people are going to be excited to see we did get a paint grant a couple of months back from NeighborWorks Great Falls. It's given us time actually to accomplish that and have time for that to dry in between without the kiddos running around or possibly end up with, you know, running into wet paint."
"We've upgraded our grocery store, our doctor's office working on our dental clinic right now. Our training exhibit has been upgraded. We have our whole classroom exhibit is brand new. So that'll be something awesome for our reopening that we're excited. And basically, you can look at almost every single display in the museum and be able to see something new and once we reopen."
She also explains how they have been looking at the right time to reopen. "We haven't nailed down an exact date yet. When we do, it will be announced on our Facebook page. But we're looking at about two weeks out. We're kind of waiting for some more stuff to open up. Safety is one of our biggest concerns here and one of the things that's most important to us".
Knightstep also explains that they will be prepping the museum with the right tools.
"I know you'll see us around with the bleach bottles, spraying everything down, making sure that you know the height, especially the high traffic areas, but a lot of our exhibits being that they are interactive are all high touch areas. So definitely we plan we've already so basically everything, but we'll be moving around a lot with bleach and different sanitizers to make sure we stay clean and up."
Here's more information about the Give Great Falls campaign:
- Give Great Falls is an exciting celebration of giving by connecting community members with local nonprofits whose mission aligns with their passion. The Great Falls Area Community Foundation, United Way of Cascade County and Great Falls Area Chamber of Commerce Nonprofit Alliance are partnering to host Give Great Falls. Our goal is to encourage philanthropic giving, community engagement, and strengthen collaborative impact for the benefit of the Great Falls Area.
