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Children search for buried treasure under a pirate ship emerging from one of the walls. They visit an imitation farmer’s market before pretending to cook in a Cajun cottage. From a Mardi Gras float, they toss beads to a wall representing a waving crowd.
Learning through play is the theme at the Bayou Country Children’s Museum, which has been in the works for 15 years. Grants, sponsorships, private donations and fundraisers have made the dream of a family-friendly, educational facility a reality for board members and supporters.
“We’re so thankful to our early contributors because without them we wouldn’t be here. They believed in us, and we are carrying through on this plan,” Executive Director Christy Naquin said.
Instead of balloons, bubbles fill the air at the museum’s grand opening at 11 a.m., Sept. 28. Following a flag-raising ceremony and choir performance, a jazz band leads the crowd in a second line into the building. Festivities continue until 6 p.m., and activities are also held outside to help ease congestion inside the museum.
The mostly Louisiana-themed museum is entirely interactive; children can touch, play with or climb on every exhibit. Across from the courtyard, where names and children’s drawings can be engraved in bricks for donations, is a shortened offshore supply vessel. Once aboard, children move the controls while watching a video depicting a boat captain’s journey.
Inside the museum, the blue walkway with green on each side represents a bayou. “The idea is to take you on a journey down a bayou and show what you would come across as you made your way to the Gulf of Mexico,” Naquin explained.
A globe and panels representing eight countries welcome visitors at the start of their journey. As guests read about the cultures that have influenced Cajun traditions, a light on the globe shows the path from each of the countries to Louisiana.
Naquin said that reality shows set in the state have sparked interest in Louisiana and that the museum is an educational experience, even for residents. Information on Cajun history and culture is available to read at each exhibit. Input from the American Sugar Cane League, Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program and others has ensured that all exhibits provide accurate portrayals and information.
“It’s not just an avenue for kids to come and play; they’re learning. It’s also somewhere parents can come and maybe pick up on something they didn’t know about the area they thought they were so familiar with,” said Naquin.
As part of a main exhibit gallery, a sugarcane harvester is made into a climbing structure where children watch a video that helps them pretend to drive in a canefield. Surrounding the harvester is Sugar Cane Alley, which explains the crop’s life cycle. Another key attraction is a 17-foot-high oil derrick children climb and play under while learning what oil is used for and how some fish depend on rigs for shelter and food. A replica shrimp boat teaches guests about the seafood industry and the differences between brown and white shrimp.
“It’s not just your typical pretend police car or ambulance; they’re going to get in a full-size sugarcane combine harvester here,” Naquin said. “They’re going to get in a shrimp boat. They’re going to be on an oil derrick. That’s not something you find just anywhere.”
In addition to the Louisiana-themed exhibits, the museum offers a miniature theater, complete with a puppet stage. In the early childhood section, younger visitors crawl through tunnels, feel different textures and view themselves on a screen.
A Lafourche Parish sheriff’s deputy is at the only guided exhibit, Safetyville, full time to prepare children for storms and fires. In a house-like setting, wind and dark clouds on a television screen simulate severe weather and smoke and orange lights mimic a fire.
Other features include a water estuary table, a bridge exhibit and a health and wellness section.
“Our culture is so rich and so special that we were able to make an entire museum out of just what we have at our fingertips,” Naquin said.
She said fundraising efforts must continue because admissions aren’t enough to sustain the museum. Fundraisers include Play It Forward casino events and Night at the Boo-seum, where children dress in costumes and trick-or-treat at various booths the week before Halloween. The museum partners with New Orleans Saints ambassador and former player Michael Lewis for its fourth-annual golf tournament, held Sept. 13 at LaTour Golf Club in Mathews. Lewis is available to take pictures and sign footballs as prizes. Other prizes include lessons from a professional golfer, and refreshments are served.
Naquin called the museum “an extension of the classroom,” saying pre- and post-visit packets are available to teachers wanting to incorporate museum field trips into lessons. The museum also hosts birthday parties and summer camps, and guests can buy exhibit- and Louisiana-themed souvenirs at the gift shop.
The museum’s target age group is 2-12, though Naquin expects guests of all ages.
“When you get them through that door and you hear them say, ‘Wow,’ that’s better than me explaining and showing pictures of what could be,” Naquin said. “It’s going to be something very, very special, not just to Thibodaux or Lafourche, not even just to the bayou region. It’s going to be so far-reaching.”
The sugarcane harvester at Bayou Country Children’s Museum is a climbing structure that features a video to help children pretend they are driving in a cane field. The museum’s grand opening is Sept. 28.
