Archive

Parent Cafe offers support for families dealing with medical challenges, featuring organ donors, Paul Osterholm and Maranda Abitz

Tuesday, January 24th, 2023

FOND DU LAC, WIS (January 20, 2023) –  Social connections promote strong families and are one of the most important of the protective factors… and you never know when one of the people in your network just might save your life! Join guest speakers, Paul Osterholm and Maranda Abitz as they share their story of how their connections led them to make the life saving decision to make a live kidney donation. Challenges, especially medical challenges, can be extremely difficult to navigate. Their heartwarming story illustrates how important personal and social connections are to mental and physical health. Children in attendance will get the opportunity to engage with author Brenda Cortez as she reads her story “HOWL Helps Others,” a story about how kindness is always and helping others is always the best option.

Parent Cafes, a series of three conversations about the challenges and victories involved in being a parent. The sessions, open to any parent or caregiver, will be held from 11:00am – 12:30pm or 4:30pm – 6:00pm on Wednesday, Feb. 1 (sessions March 1 and April 5 to follow). The Parent Cafes, held at the Children’s Museum of Fond du Lac, are presented in partnership with Fond du Lac County’s Partnership for Children (SPROUT) and Family Connections. These free events include a light meal, engaging child programming/museum play and an opportunity for parents and other caregivers to make meaningful connections and engage in conversations about self-care, connections, family dynamics, and more. Community resources are also available for attendees. 

To register for the February 1 Parent Cafe “Give from the Heart, a discussion about Organ Donation and dealing with Medical Challenges”, visit cmfdl.org/visit/programs/parent-cafe/

Photo Caption: Paul Osterholm and Miranda Abitz, both organ donors, will share their stories at the February 1st Parent Cafe held at the Children’s Museum of Fond du Lac. To register for this free program, visit cmfdl.org/visit/programs/parent-cafe/  Paul’s story is featured among other heartwarming stories in “Because of Organ Donation” a collection of stories by Brenda E. Cortez.

Jeanna Giese, 1st Rabies Survivor without the Vaccine, Educating on Rabies at Children’s Museum on World Rabies Day, September 28

Monday, September 26th, 2022

Fond du Lac, Wisconsin – 9/22/2022 – Eighteen years after surviving rabies, Jeanna Giese, Visitor
Experience Supervisor at the Children’s Museum of Fond du Lac (CMFDL), is using her experience to educate the community about the deadly virus, rabies, and how the vaccine can save lives. Jeanna describes, “rabies is transmitted usually through the bite of a rabid animal. Once the virus is in your body, it multiplies. After making all of its copies, the virus travels up your nervous system (your body’s command center) to your spinal cord and into your brain where it starts shutting down your body. To prevent this, as soon as possible after getting bitten or scratched, you want to start receiving the rabies vaccination. Rabies is almost 100% fatal, but 18 years ago, in 2004, I became the first person in the world to survive rabies without receiving the vaccination after trying to save a bat.”

The best way to stay safe around animals is to not touch wildlife (like bats and raccoons) and animals that you don’t know (like others dogs and cats). If you do encounter an animal and get bitten or scratched, it is important to contact a doctor right away.

Learn more about Jeanna’s experience, what rabies is, and how the vaccine can save lives at her Science Lab program on Wednesday, September 28 at 10:00am at CMFDL, presented in partnership with the Fond du Lac Area United Way.

Fostering creativity at Children’s Museum of Fond du Lac

Thursday, March 17th, 2022

FOND DU LAC (WLUK) — The Children’s Museum of Fond du Lac brings curiosity and imagination to life. Hands-on exhibits help foster creative learning.

One such exhibit is the Holiday Automotive Tech Center. Executive Director Andrea Welsch joined Good Day Wisconsin to share more about the exhibit.

The Children’s Museum of Fond du Lac is open from 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday and 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

The Children’s Museum of Fond du Lac is open from 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday and 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

A fun family event returns to the museum this year. The Easter EGG-stravaganza is back! It’s set for Saturday, April 9. Families can register for the egg hunt at either 10:00 a.m. or 1:00 p.m. The Easter Bunny will also be on hand for pictures. Kids can also participate in a variety of Easter activities.

The cost is $5 for museum members and $10 for non-members.

To sign up, call 920-929-0707.

Watch the news segment here: https://fox11online.com/good-day-wi/fostering-creativity-at-childrens-museum-of-fond-du-lac

Board’s Eye View

Tuesday, November 23rd, 2021

A Board Member’s perspective of CMFDL:

I just wanted to share briefly about my experience with the museum, and how it has impacted my family.

We moved to town a little over 11 years ago, literally the week that our oldest child was born. We moved to a new town (with no family, and I had no friends here), started our own family, and I went from working a fast pace job as an auditor for a CPA firm in Madison to staying on in a limited PT remote role.  Three huge life changes within days of each other. Needless to say I felt quite adrift and alone. Fast forward almost a year and a half (plus another child), and I walked into the FDL children’s museum back when it was at the Windover Center. We bought an annual pass by the end of that month, and this was my weekly outing with our quickly growing family. From the moment we stepped in the doors and were greeted with the always smiling faces of the staff members, we felt welcomed and that we were home. My children were challenged with developmentally-appropriate activities, learned how to share and play parallel with others, and selfishly I enjoyed the fellowship of other moms that were in the same trench that I was in.  There are ladies here in the crowd that I have either met at the museum or spent numerous hours watching over our children together while walking through the various exhibits. I am now back into working full-time, but my parents (who have since moved to town) now have a grandparents membership and my kids still love coming to the museum. The children’s museum has helped make fond du lac become not just a city that we are living in, but a community that I feel is my home. The museum has given my family a decade worth of memories, from puppet shows of the speckled frogs, to eating more than my share of pizza, Halloween parties, and searching for Rudolph when attending Passport to the Holidays. So again, I want to say thank you. Thank you for your financial support, thank you for sharing the museum’s initiatives and stories within the community, thank you for something as simple as liking and sharing the museum’s posts on social media. Even the tiniest of actions can yield an enormous impact. Your support now is an investment in our community members and our future community leaders.

• Ellen Kant, Incoming Treasurer

Collaborate to Advocate: The Power of Collective Voice

Monday, September 20th, 2021

By Michael McHorney, Children’s Museum of Eau Claire; Deb Gilpin, Madison Children’s Museum; Anne Snow, Children’s Museum of LaCrosse; Andrea Welsch, Children’s Museum of Fond du Lac

When hearing the name of our state, Wisconsin, non-residents typically associate our culture with beer and cheese. Yes, Wisconsin leads the nation in cheese production and often ranks at or near the top in per capita rankings for beer consumption. Wisconsin also ranks first nationally in the production of horseradish, ginseng, and cranberries and is known for producing butter, bratwursts, and corn. Wisconsin also leads the nation in something else: it has the most children’s museums per capita in the United States. Basically, you could say folks from Wisconsin live in a state of PLAY.

The value of a regional or state children’s museum network cannot be over-estimated. Many function as key sounding boards and support groups for museum practitioners scattered around a broad area. They can also harness the expertise and reach of member museums to develop a more powerful collective voice, one that can be harder to escape the notice of local government leaders. There is indeed strength in numbers.

Children’s museums in Wisconsin have long been engaged in collaborative efforts. An annual gathering, which began in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, in 2009, has traveled the state ever since, increasing in participation and frequency. At these events, children’s museum professionals discuss thought-provoking ideas and share each other’s best practices. This collaboration, known as Wisconsin Children’s Museums (WICM) has resulted in greater quality for exhibits and programs and nearly doubled children’s museum traffic from just over 500,000 (2009) to nearly 1 million (2019). To assist in navigating the pandemic, WICM held virtual meetings almost weekly. Discussions concentrated on uncovering critical and necessary funding sources and sharing best practices around reopening.

In November 2020, after working together to research state funding opportunities, more than a dozen children’s museums shared a combined total of $650,000 in COVID relief funding from the Wisconsin Department of Administration. This modest portion of statewide funding, available to all arts and cultural organizations, helped some children’s museums in the state, but more support is needed. Recently, members of the group again put their heads together to create messages for their county executives, mayors/city managers, etc. A powerful letter, signed by the group, details how children’s museums play an essential role in healthy, thriving communities and asks for their support in allocating American Rescue Plan funds to keep museums alive. It is hoped that these latest joint communication efforts will lead to additional opportunities for Wisconsin children’s museums to collectively advance goals of the Department of Children and Families and Department of Education, as well as provide critical support for our community’s children as they are healing from the effects of the pandemic.

What started as a group meeting periodically to share best practices has evolved into a collaborative that meets bi-weekly to coordinate and discuss museum issues and trends. Our first statewide project in 2018 implemented the national initiative Prescription for Play (RX4P) through a state media campaign in cooperation with medical institutions and pediatricians.

Wisconsin children’s museums demonstrated how effective the statewide partnership can be in this campaign, which highlighted information released by the American Academy of Pediatrics about the importance of play to a child’s health and development. A plan created collaboratively by the Fond du Lac and Madison Children’s Museums was endorsed and supported by all thirteen children’s museums in the state. On a single day, the campaign reached more than 100,000 people through social media posts alone. In addition, approximately two dozen healthcare entities and local radio and television outlets joined forces to shed light on a topic that directly impacts social, emotional, physical, and intellectual development of children.

Collaborating with colleagues from around the state allowed us to effectively and creatively develop a unique Wisconsin Prescription for Play logo and press release that each museum could customize, resulting in sweatshirts, stickers, signage, and opportunities to incorporate expertise from physicians in our own communities. Working smarter, not harder, we reached more people in a more impactful way. These efforts were acknowledged by the Association of Children’s Museums, who invited us to present the results of our awareness campaign in a national webinar.

Andrea Welsch, Children’s Museum of Fond du Lac

Wisconsin Children’s Museums have moved from intermittent to consistent advocacy of play, starting through relationship building at our annual Children’s Museum Day at the Capitol. This became the foundation for realizing outcomes for positioning children’s museums as major partners of state government. In January 2019, Madison Children’s Museum hosted the Governor Evers’ Madison Kid’s Gala, and Michael McHorney was appointed by Governor Evers to the Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Board. In 2020, all children’s museums were successful in receiving COVID funding relief. These three examples were direct results of that initial relationship building.

Governor Evers leveraged our audience reach when he hosted three Inaugural Kid’s Galas across the state, in children’s sites, two of them children’s museums. In Madison, he funded a free Saturday at the museum, but he won us over when he held a press conference in the museum, but only took questions from kids. The press conference made it clear—the welfare of children would be front and center in his new administration.

Deb Gilpin, Madison Children’s Museum

Momentum has been building, but more work is needed. Moving forward, efforts will involve telling the story of children’s museums and how they are an essential part of a thriving community. And thriving communities mean a flourishing state of Wisconsin. The Wisconsin children’s museum group’s latest project involves a push to educate the citizens of Wisconsin on the inequities surrounding pandemic relief funding.

Over the past twenty-five years in the field, I have witnessed children’s museums evolve from “a nice thing to have” to being an important resource, not only to families but also to communities. Some of our largest employers use the museum as a recruiting tool. They bring potential new hires to visit the museum when touring the city. Our statewide network of children’s museums makes the state a great place to work and live.

Anne Snow, Children’s Museum of La Crosse

The value of a regional or state children’s museum network cannot be over-estimated. Many function as key sounding boards and support groups for museum practitioners scattered around a broad area. They can also harness the expertise and reach of member museums to develop a more powerful collective voice, one that can be harder to escape the notice of local government leaders. There is indeed strength in numbers. State networks like the Wisconsin Children’s Museums are showing the potential of strategic solidarity to support each other and advocate for the children and families in the communities they serve.

Michael McHorney is executive director of the Children’s Museum of Eau Claire; Deb Gilpin is president and CEO of Madison Children’s Museum; Anne Snow is founder and executive director of the Children’s Museum of La Crosse; and Andrea Welsch is the executive director of the Children’s Museum of Fond du Lac. They are all located in Wisconsin.

Bubble breathing, rock hunting: Fond du Lac kids learning to cope with post pandemic stress

Monday, July 5th, 2021

Sharon Roznik Fond du Lac Reporter

FOND DU LAC – Kelly Lamb sat beside her young son, Zachary, listening intently to a story about how to find a perfect rock.

The first step is to get quiet, then low to the ground to hunt at eye-level for a rock the perfect color, shape and size. There’s no asking for help, just take your time. The choice is yours.

The story was meant to help young minds find ways to intentionally calm themselves through grounding activities outdoors. Growing up under the shadow of a pandemic hasn’t been easy for anyone, Lamb related, and more children these days are feeling overwhelmed, but unable to express how they feel or cope.

“My son lost a year of interaction with other kids, and I thought this was meaningful for both of us, the concept of using the environment and nature to check out from any stress you may be feeling,” Lamb said.

The activity was held this month at the Children’s Museum of Fond du Lac as part of a Mindfulness, Resiliency and Beyond summer series focused on youth. The free classes are designed to build resiliency against stress and boredom and are provided at the museum, the YMCA and Boys and Girls club through a partnership with Agnesian HealthCare.

Matt Doll, director of Agnesian HealthCare Outpatient Behavioral Health, said the program was developed in response to an ongoing mental health crisis, compounded by the pandemic. In 2020, the proportion of mental health-related visits for children ages 5 to 11 increased 24% from the previous year, according to the Centers for Diseases Control. In 12 to 17 years old, those visits increased 31%.

Such a significant increase in the need for more mental health services has overwhelmed the system, Doll said, and the summer series is way provide the general public with resources through community partnerships.

“It’s a way to reach more kids and help them help themselves through learning emotional, self-regulation techniques,” Doll said.

Anxiety is the predominant issue kids are wrestling with, Doll said, but it’s often hard for them to express how they are feeling because stress propels them into a “flight or fight” mode.

“It comes from how kids are viewing the world, it’s not as predictable as it once was and they see parents and adults are equally stressed,” Doll said. “Increased frustration in any household, when parents may not be agreeing, makes the world an uncertain and unsafe place.”

Young people are also dealing with the loss of activities that serve as rites of passage. Graduations, proms, birthday parties, field trips, sporting events were put on hold during the pandemic and Doll says these events are developmentally important to kids.

“Our children need a way forward through a new normal in ways we can keep each other safe. Our approach is to use art and music and other creative ways to help them express themselves and experience some joy,” he said.

Activities at each location are run by Danielle Falesnik, a new member of Agnesian HealthCare’s Doll & Associates team. Falesnik is an art therapist and professional counselor, with a passion for improving emotional wellness.

Bubble breathing, art therapy and mindful movement and play are classes offered at the Children’s Museum for kids ages 2 to 10. Museum director Andrea Welsch said she learned how her own 13-year-old daughter was feeling through participation in a permanent, evolving art display the museum is hosting, “Colors of the Pandemic.” The project invites the community to express themselves through an art piece in response to the pandemic.Read Local.As a subscriber, you will enjoy unlimited access to the news and information important to the community.

“Parents were given questions to ask and I did it with my daughter and a friend, and it helped me learn what she was going through,” Welsch said. “When we opened back in May, many families shares stories with me of concern about their children’s emotional health.” 

Fond du Lac Boys & Girls Club is offering classes to its student members ages 11 to 18 on how to develop healthy and resilient relationships and use art as a means to heal. The club’s new mental health specialist, Aly Sanders, said she’s been working with teens — both in groups and one-on-one — on resiliency and coming back together in groups after a period of isolation.

“I think once you build a rapport with these kids they definitely start to open up, and through social, emotional learning they are gaining skills they’ll be able to take with them through life,” Sanders said.

The YMCA’s classes are geared for adults and seniors to help navigate life changes and understand how these changes impact our overall wellbeing. 

Doll said the resiliency of the community to survive and thrive in the face of a global pandemic was made possible through partnerships, organizations and volunteers working together to make a difference.

“As individuals, we can continue to work on ways to cope and avoid what makes us feel emotionally unhealthy, like limiting the information we take in daily,” he said. “Those are the kinds of purposeful decisions we can make to help our brains calm down.”

Mindfulness, Resiliency and Beyond Classes

Children’s Museum of Fond du Lac (ages 2 to 10)

• Bubble Breathing, 11 a.m., July 1
• Art Therapy First Aid for Kids, 11 a.m., July 15 
• 5 Senses Scavenger Hunt, 11 a.m., July 29
• Mindful Movement and Play, 11 a.m., Aug. 12 

Fond du Lac Boys & Girls Club (Members age 11 to 18) 

• Healthy and Resilient Relationships, 11 a.m.,  Aug. 5

Fond du Lac YMCA (adults and seniors)

• Nothing is Normal: Everything is Weird, 11 a.m., July 8
• Self-Care 101, 11 a.m., Aug. 19

Contact Sharon Roznik at 920-907-7936 or sroznik@gannett.com. Follow her on Facebook at facebook.com/reporterroz/

Children’s museums in Fond du Lac, Sheboygan begin to reopen, time slots available

Saturday, March 20th, 2021

From Staff Reports USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

FOND DU LAC – The Children’s Museum of Fond du Lac has partially reopened and is now accepting visit reservations.

The museum expects to provide reservation options through June 13 as part of a “Welcome Back Period,” it announced last week. It has partnered with Above & Beyond Children’s Museum of Sheboygan to bring this program to life. 

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, previous phases have allowed limited access to the museum’s spaces. The addition of weekend hours is based on a reopening plan that was approved by the organization’s board of directors as well as the local departments of public health.

“The caring and proactive thinking of our generous donors and the creativity of our staff has resulted in a collaborative Welcome Back Program that will support families while they are returning to our museums,” Andrea Welsch, executive director of the Fond du Lac museum, said in the announcement. 

Due to financial support from the Efroymson Family Foundation, National Exchange Bank Foundation and the Frank G & Frieda K Brotz Family Foundation, more than 1,600 families have received free “Welcome Back Passes” which provide admission to both museums.

Passes can also be purchased through the museum’s website, and are valid for the entire Welcome Back Period. Anyone experiencing financial hardship can have fees waived by submitting an “Every Child Every Family”

Children’s Museum of Fond du Lac is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. Two-hour time slots can be reserved by calling 920-929-0707 or online at cmfdl.org. 

Above & Beyond Children’s Museum is open 9 to 11 a.m. and 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Time slots can be reserved by calling 920-458-4263 or online at abkids.org. 

Fond du Lac Children’s Museum re-opens after closing for pandemic

Monday, March 15th, 2021

16 PHOTOSKids play Saturday, March 13, 2021 at the Fond du Lac Children’s Museum in Fond du Lac, Wis. The museum opens today to the public after being closed because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Doug Raflik/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin DOUG RAFLIK, USA TODAY NETWORK-WISCONSINKids enter to play Saturday, March 13, 2021 at the Fond du Lac Children’s Museum in Fond du Lac, Wis. The museum opens today to the public after being closed because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Doug Raflik/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin DOUG RAFLIK, USA TODAY NETWORK-WISCONSINKids play Saturday, March 13, 2021 at the Fond du Lac Children’s Museum in Fond du Lac, Wis. The museum opens today to the public after being closed because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Doug Raflik/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin DOUG RAFLIK, USA TODAY NETWORK-WISCONSINKids play Saturday, March 13, 2021 at the Fond du Lac Children’s Museum in Fond du Lac, Wis. The museum opens today to the public after being closed because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Doug Raflik/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin DOUG RAFLIK, USA TODAY NETWORK-WISCONSINKids play Saturday, March 13, 2021 at the Fond du Lac Children’s Museum in Fond du Lac, Wis. The museum opens today to the public after being closed because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Doug Raflik/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin DOUG RAFLIK, USA TODAY NETWORK-WISCONSINKids play Saturday, March 13, 2021 at the Fond du Lac Children’s Museum in Fond du Lac, Wis. The museum opens today to the public after being closed because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Doug Raflik/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin DOUG RAFLIK, USA TODAY NETWORK-WISCONSINKids play Saturday, March 13, 2021 at the Fond du Lac Children’s Museum in Fond du Lac, Wis. The museum opens today to the public after being closed because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Doug Raflik/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin DOUG RAFLIK, USA TODAY NETWORK-WISCONSINKids play Saturday, March 13, 2021 at the Fond du Lac Children’s Museum in Fond du Lac, Wis. The museum opens today to the public after being closed because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Doug Raflik/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin DOUG RAFLIK, USA TODAY NETWORK-WISCONSINAngie Bodoh and Mark Brunelli of Fond du Lac look at a globe Saturday, March 13, 2021 at the Fond du Lac Children’s Museum in Fond du Lac, Wis. The museum opens today to the public after being closed because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Doug Raflik/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin DOUG RAFLIK, USA TODAY NETWORK-WISCONSINKids play Saturday, March 13, 2021 at the Fond du Lac Children’s Museum in Fond du Lac, Wis. The museum opens today to the public after being closed because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Doug Raflik/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin DOUG RAFLIK, USA TODAY NETWORK-WISCONSINKids play Saturday, March 13, 2021 at the Fond du Lac Children’s Museum in Fond du Lac, Wis. The museum opens today to the public after being closed because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Doug Raflik/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin DOUG RAFLIK, USA TODAY NETWORK-WISCONSINKids play Saturday, March 13, 2021 at the Fond du Lac Children’s Museum in Fond du Lac, Wis. The museum opens today to the public after being closed because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Doug Raflik/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin DOUG RAFLIK, USA TODAY NETWORK-WISCONSINKids play Saturday, March 13, 2021 at the Fond du Lac Children’s Museum in Fond du Lac, Wis. The museum opens today to the public after being closed because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Doug Raflik/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin DOUG RAFLIK, USA TODAY NETWORK-WISCONSINKids play Saturday, March 13, 2021 at the Fond du Lac Children’s Museum in Fond du Lac, Wis. The museum opens today to the public after being closed because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Doug Raflik/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin DOUG RAFLIK, USA TODAY NETWORK-WISCONSIN Kids play Saturday, March 13, 2021 at the Fond du Lac Children’s Museum in Fond du Lac, Wis. The museum opens today to the public after being closed because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Doug Raflik/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin DOUG RAFLIK, USA TODAY NETWORK-WISCONSINA sign advises to social distance Saturday, March 13, 2021 at the Fond du Lac Children’s Museum in Fond du Lac, Wis. The museum opens today to the public after being closed because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Doug Raflik/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin DOUG RAFLIK, USA TODAY NETWORK-WISCONSIN