Jay Honeck
Touchdown! Greaser!
The Iowa Children's Museum opened an aviation exhibit last year. This project was the idea of a group of us who put together an on-airport airshow/car show for the museum back in 2006 that provided the seed money for the exhibit.
It was a tough sell to the museum folks, at first. They simply didn't see the potential of an aviation exhibit for kids. It took the better part of a year, but we eventually won them over to our side. Once this was achieved, it really took off, with grant money from NASA, Rockwell Collins and others.
Today, "Take Flight" is truly a world class exhibit, but the question remained: Did it help the museum in any way? Well, the numbers are now in. From the Iowa City paper today:
"The Iowa Children's Museum...had about 135,000 visitors last year, up from 71,000 in 2003." Woo hoo!
Nothing changed at the museum except that enormous new exhibit -- so I think it's safe to proclaim that "aviation" is still a hot seller with kids! Let's hook 'em young, and you CFIs will get to "clean 'em and fry 'em" later on!
See it here: http://www.theicm.org/exhibits/take-flight
It was a tough sell to the museum folks, at first. They simply didn't see the potential of an aviation exhibit for kids. It took the better part of a year, but we eventually won them over to our side. Once this was achieved, it really took off, with grant money from NASA, Rockwell Collins and others.
Today, "Take Flight" is truly a world class exhibit, but the question remained: Did it help the museum in any way? Well, the numbers are now in. From the Iowa City paper today:
"The Iowa Children's Museum...had about 135,000 visitors last year, up from 71,000 in 2003." Woo hoo!
Nothing changed at the museum except that enormous new exhibit -- so I think it's safe to proclaim that "aviation" is still a hot seller with kids! Let's hook 'em young, and you CFIs will get to "clean 'em and fry 'em" later on!
See it here: http://www.theicm.org/exhibits/take-flight