Submitted by The Hands On Children’s Museum
Last week, the Hands On Children’s Museum became a national “Bright Lights” museum thanks to a major award from the Noyce Foundation. The Foundation honors the memory of Dr. Robert N. Noyce who co-founded Intel, and their new Bright Lights initiative recognizes museums and science centers that are working in extraordinary ways to deliver science education and engage the children of under-served and at-risk populations.
The Noyce Foundation publicly stated that, “while all of the applicants described great work, the goal of the Awards was to discover and shine a light on those willing to embrace their communities in new and profound ways.” Only seven museums and science centers across the nation received an award, and Hands On was among them.
HOCM survived three rounds of competition, 15 judges and 94 competing proposals from some of the largest science centers and children’s museums in the nation. The Olympia-based Hand’ On Children’s Museum was by far the smallest museum to be selected and the only children’s museum to win. The Foundation said that they were extraordinarily impressed with the museum’s efforts to serve a range of families including those affected by domestic violence, foster families, kinship families, families of children with autism, military families and many others who have special needs.
The six other museums to be selected are major institutions, and to be counted among them is humbling and exciting. By comparison, one of the award winners — the Monterey Bay Aquarium has a $73M annual budget — 30 times larger than the Hands On Children’s Museum’s.
The award carries a cash prize, which will help to strengthen the many access programs and allow the museum to explore new ways to inspire hands-on learning for children who need it most. This is a tremendous honor for the museum and confirms the good work the staff is doing to engage all children and families in our community.
