Grant Money to Fund Kids Museum Exhibits.

The nascent Cobblestone Children's Museum has received $12,500 in grant and sponsorship money to expand its operations as it works towards establishing a brick and mortar presence in Fredericksburg. Currently the museum exists as a nomad, 

The museum recently received a $5,000 JumpStart grant from the Fredericksburg Economic Development Authority which will be used to purchase a utility trailer to haul a set of mobile exhibits from event to event.  In its approval, the EDA noted that it "supports the creation of the planned museum and sees the value of the Museum on the Go as on of the preliminary steps" to establishing a permanent museum. The grant was approved with some conditions. The trailer must bear an EDA logo, and the trailer is to be returned to the EDA if a permanent museum is not established within five years. 

The museum also received a $4,000 sponsorship from Mary Washington Healthcare to teach kids about eating healthy. The money will be directed to developing an interactive exhibit called Farm to Table. According to museum documents, the Farm to Table exhibit will teach kids where their food comes from and how it's grown. Kids will be able to play with their food, so to speak, by interacting with the exhibit's farm, market and kitchen displays. 

"Many children today are unaware of the origins of the food they eat and therefore do not have a direct connection to the source of the food they consume each day," reads a summary of the program submitted to the EDA by the museum. "Our goal is to provide a fun filled, child directed experience that will inspire children to ask questions about where their food comes from as well as encourage them to make healthy choices in the food that they eat."

Next year, the museum will receive a $3,500 grant from the Fredericksburg Area Service League to develop a traveling physics exhibit called Ready, Set, Roll. The exhibit will use golf balls, ramps, loops and jumps to introduce kids to concepts of gravity, velocity, friction, and motion in an elementary manner. 

Since earlier this year, the museum has been making appearance at community events with its Amazing Magnets exhibit. Using a variety of attractive, interactive displays, it gets kids to think about the science behind magnetism in a practical and tactile manner.