Children's Museum Helping Downtown Businesses Prepare for Opening

ST. CLOUD (WJON News) -- The Great River Children's Museum in downtown St. Cloud is getting close to opening, and they want to make sure their neighbors are ready too.

Executive Director Cassie Miles says they are estimating about 130,000 people to visit the museum annually. She says she's trying to be proactive about the changes coming and wants business owners to be prepared.

Have you thought through retail displays? The safety of your visitors with young kids pulling on tables and shelves, and also the safety of your own product by putting breakable goods a little bit higher. I've down a bit of walking throughout the area to look at retail displays to see what you can see from outside. You want to entice the four year olds into your building by putting something at their eye level.

Miles says they want to be a part of the downtown and help places like restaurants get ready for more business during the day.

Food establishments are saying can we revamp a kids' menu, do we have enough booster seats available, is there a spot for strollers to go, do we have chairs with backs on them for toddlers to sit on, things like that are some of the questions we've gotten from savvy business owners already.

The museum's hours will be 9:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday, with later hours on Thursdays.

Miles says they are a huge advocate for a vibrant downtown and she wants to make sure everyone is ready.

When visitors come to an area their reviews for you are largely built on their whole experience. So if they come to play at the Children's Museum, then go to a restaurant and the staff isn't prepared, that's a negative review that I don't want you to get because we haven't had the opportunity to help you. So let me help you, let's work through this together, and let's make our families happy.

The Great River Children's Museum will be the second-largest children's museum in Minnesota.

It is scheduled to open in late spring.

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Miles will have more on this topic Thursday morning at 9:00 a.m. at the Davidson Opera House on 5th Avenue in downtown St. Cloud.

Miles says she also wants businesses to let her and her staff know they have available so they can make recommendations to families visiting the museum.

Twice a month a representative from the Great River Children's Museum will be on the News @ Noon Show on WJON as they prepare to open. Earlier this month they discussed how they are starting to hire the staff to operate the facility.