MADE is a paid partnership with Little Lake County.
Welcome to MADE in Lake County! MADE introduces you to the people and stories behind local Lake County businesses. Today it is our pleasure to introduce you to Kathy Goers, Co-Founder of the Busy Brains Children’s Museum,
Along with friend Alison Price, Kathy Goers had the great idea to start a children’s museum in Lake County. As a Mundelein teacher, she felt there needed to be an interactive and educational field trip destination within the surrounding area. Once she had “semi-retired” from teaching and had children of her own, the firm “tug” on her heart for this need would not go away. Sharing her idea with Price, she learned her drive and passion were the same.
Kathy and Alison decided to start Busy Brains Children’s Museum in 2003, as a traveling children’s museum that has hands-on, educational activities meant to spark curiosity and inspire learning while having fun.
Kathy says that starting, growing, and maintaining a non-profit organization takes up a great deal of time, patience, and research. She is thankful to have a supportive family who has been on her side the whole way through. While her children have helped her set up the traveling exhibits throughout Lake County, she is very aware that family comes first. She knows that most of her volunteers have children of their own, and it is important to put their needs first before the organization’s needs.
Kathy loves being able to educate children in a fun and exciting ways. Since a permanent museum is not open yet, she loves watching families stop the business of life and learn together through their traveling exhibits. Developing renderings for the permanent exhibits and visioning the programming also keeps her going. Outside of work with Busy Brains, Kathy loves to garden and listen to her kids run around outside. She says that it is also nice to stop life and go out to eat with her husband. Someday she hopes to be able to dust the cobwebs off her scrapbooks and add to them!
Kathy draws her inspiration from her children. They inspire her, even without realizing it. She really wants them to see that with a dream and lots of dedication, they can put their mind to anything and make it a reality. She is also extremely inspired when teaching children.
Busy Brains Children’s Museum is about to embark on a capital campaign to fix up a building and build out the permanent exhibits. They are looking for sponsors of exhibits, birthday rooms, and the creation station art room. The Board of Directors are dedicated and hard-working but need even more passionate volunteers to join the building, grant writing, fundraising, marketing, or exhibit committees. Please feel free to contact Kathy at [email protected] for more information.
For now, you can find Busy Brains Children’s Museum at various places and events around Lake County with their traveling exhibits. Just check their website for locations and dates. Be sure to like them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter for updates.
Disclosure: Busy Brains Children’s Museum is our featured Business of the Month. This series is part of a paid promotion partnership with Little Lake County. If you are interested in featuring your locally-owned business in our series, please contact the sales team.
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