RUTLAND, Vt. (WCAX) – A new partnership between Killington Ski Resort and the Wonderfeet Kid’s Museum is encouraging families to find their love for the outdoors while staying warm and dry inside.
“The time that they’re going to spend here isn’t about any one specific exhibit, it’s about their time that they’re spending together as a family,” said Danielle Monroe with the Wonderfeet Kids’ Museum.
Children and families can bond and adventure at a brand-new indoor exhibit at the museum in downtown Rutland. The organization relocated last spring to a larger space across Merchants Row and the new exhibit, now the museum’s largest. Monroe says they approached Killington to partner on the project. “Because we know so many families in our area love outdoor recreation, especially skiing and snowboarding, we wanted to make sure that Killington was part of the new museum and represented here with an exhibit that allows kids to explore their space through physical activity, while building gross motor skills, but still incorporate lots of those elements of imaginative play,” she said.
Kids up to eight years old can work on their balance, core strength, and spatial awareness through fun activities. “This exhibit gives kids opportunities to build all of those essential skills, but in a really fun and play-based way. They don’t even know that they’re working on a new skill, they just know they want to push the truck over the ramp or they want to try to balance while their dropping the ball down the chute,” Monroe said.
How do you shrink a couple thousand acres down to a couple thousand square feet, keep kids safe while having fun,
and take account of New England’s four seasons? Well, thanks to local Vermonters, the museum was able to do just that. “All of the exhibits here were built by Vermonters, whether that was in workshops and businesses we hired, or with crews of volunteers. And we could not be more proud to say that this museum is really built by the Rutland community,” Monroe said.
“It gives them an introduction to what we offer. So, if they’re excited about this, odds are they’re going to the excited to be at the mountain, too,” said Killington’s Kristel Killary. She says the museum is one of many organizations the resort works with. For Killary, the mother of a two-year-old daughter, having a chance to positively impact parents like herself made this new project even more special. “It just meant more to me that we support not only the museum but the kids her age that aren’t coming up to the mountain all the time like she is.”