October 22
October 22, 2007
Richard Weaver
October 24, 2007
Two different volunteer groups in Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes possess plans to build wetlands museums geared toward children, but both proposed projects are still severely short of money.
However, the Bayou Country Children’s Museum in Thibodaux and the South Louisiana Wetlands Children’s Discovery Center in Houma have secured land on which to construct the buildings.
Terrebonne Parish officials recently decided to provide land for the Discovery Center adjacent to the Houma-Terrebonne Civic Center after debating whether to use the property for a hotel development.
The board of the Bayou Country Children’s Museum in Thibodaux hopes to erect the $4.2 million facility on 2.5 acres of land in the Acadia Plantation subdivision next to Nicholls State University.
Jake Giardina and Ronald Adams are leasing the property to the board for $1 a year.
“The main reason for the museum not being built before this was lack of land that could be developed,” said Kathleen Gros, board treasurer. “We’re very grateful.”
Gros said Giardina and Adams are involved in the future of the area.
Even though the idea for the children’s museum was first proposed in 1998, the board has raised only $328,000 toward construction costs.
That figure includes $65,000 contributed by the City of Thibodaux, $25,000 given by Dr. and Mrs. Neil Maki for the “Jean Lafitte’s Treasure Dig” exhibit, and $25,000 donated by SEACOR Marine for the “Street Smarts” and “Transportation Alley” exhibits. The Peltier Foundation has been another large contributor.
The City of Thibodaux and the Peltier Foundation are “the main reason we’re to this point we are now,” Gros said. Thibodaux city employees should enjoy special free admission days if the facility is built.
The board hired the Paulus Design Group, with offices in Maine and Washington, D.C., to design the building. Paulus specializes in creating children’s museums.
“The exhibits are designed,” said Marie McChargue, the museum’s marketing intern. “We just need the money to build them.”
After hearing about the project, the developers of Acadia Plantation “thought a museum would be good for the subdivision,” Gros said.
The museum will portray the social, cultural and natural life of south Louisiana.
Exhibits will display replicas of shrimp boats, oak trees, duck blinds, Cajun cottages, interesting bridges in Louisiana, Mardi Gras floats, cane harvesters, men playing zydeco music, oil derricks and a Louisiana estuary.
The museum anticipates attracting visitors from an eight-parish region.
Gros said teachers in area schools could base lesson plans on the exhibits, and conduct field trips.
Student teachers from Nicholls State’s College of Education could observe children exploring the exhibits.
Gros said most people have never been to a children’s museum.
“It’s very hands-on and interactive,” she said. “People don’t know how exciting they are.”
McChargue explained, “I think the biggest need the museum will fill is for education. It’s a powerful tool for students. There’s nothing else like it. You’d need to go to New Orleans and Lafayette to see a children’s museum.”
“We polled teachers to get an acceptable price for admission for field trips,” Gros said. “It will be a good educational environment. It will be a fun, safe entertainment venue. People will come back frequently.”
Additionally, the building will contain rooms for birthday parties.
Gros does not view Houma’s South Louisiana Wetlands Children’s Discovery Center as a rival.
“Our feeling is we will dovetail completely,” she said. “The Bayou Country Children’s Museum is geared to two to 12 year olds, the Wetlands Center to junior high students.
Membership packages could include both museums. Once children age out of the Bayou Museum, they can go to the Wetlands museum.”
The projected cost of the Wetlands Center is almost three times that of the Children’s Museum.
Terrebonne Parish and the Wetlands Center signed a Cooperative Endeavor Agreement in December 2006 offering the museum the land near the Civic Center. However, the agreement has a termination clause permitting the Terrebonne Parish Council to void the land offer with a supermajority vote of six council members.
Dr. Joy Tingle, president of the Friends of the South Louisiana Children’s Wetlands Discovery Center Foundation, asked the Terrebonne Parish Council at its Oct. 10 meeting for an ordinance voiding the termination clause.
“We need to be able to say to supporters,” she told the council, “that the council can(not) take it away with a supermajority vote. The clause leaves uncertainty whether we will have the property.”
She also asked the council for more time to raise money. The agreement allows the foundation five years to raise 25 percent of the cost of constructing the Wetlands Center.
Tingle asked for six years. She feels the foundation lost a year of fund-raising time because the council considered using the land for a hotel development.
Tingle emphasized to the council that the Wetlands Center will be privately funded.
“The parish will provide the property,” she said. “That’s the only thing we’re asking for from the parish.”
Councilman Harold Lapeyre backed Tingle.
“I suggest you receive the additional year because of the debate going on” about the land, he said. “It’s a reasonable request.”
“The Discovery Center can be a tremendous asset for the parish and city,” he said. “Private donors hopefully will step forward now that you have the land.”
Mrs. Bessie Campeau Claudet (at left), wife of the late Mr. Aman Claudet, recently presented a donation to Kathleen Gros, director of the Bayou Country Children’s Museum in Thibodaux. The museum’s board has raised $328,000 toward construction costs of the $4.2 million facility, which will be built on 2.5 acres of land in the Acadia Plantation subdivision near Nicholls State University. * Photo courtesy of BAYOU COUNTRY CHILDREN’S MUSEUM
