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[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"39630","attributes":{"class":"media-image","typeof":"foaf:Image","style":"","title":"Member Story","alt":"Member Story"}}]]I'm sure you will receive many wonderful stories about the experiences people have had at your museum, but I think mine will be the only one that ends with a "Happily Ever After" for one of your young patrons!
I grew up going to The Children's Museum of Indianapolis with my parents. Back in those days, the Polar Bear, the Indy Car and the Carousel were the big exhibits! After I grew up and started a family, my parents would take my children to the museum and once my parents passed, I continued to do so with my children and grandchildren.
When my sons, David and Jonathan, were young they often attended classes that the Children's Museum offered on Saturday mornings. We live in Crown Point, IN, which is in the Northwest corner of the state. It is a 2 and 1/2 hour drive to Indy and due to the time difference, we loose an hour when traveling there. We had to get on the road very early to make it to the classes on time! One of the classes they particularly enjoyed was, "Birds of Prey". They learned all about Eagles and other Raptors and even went, as a class, to Eagle Creek Park! They enjoyed the visit to Eagle Creek so much that we returned there many times as a family and learned even more about wild birds. The subject became such an interest to my boys that we even went to the Greenbrier in West Virginia so they could attend a seminar on falconry and made trips to Starved Rock State Park in Illinois during the winter when eagles stop there to feed in the warm waters around the dam. Yearly we would head to Jasper/Pulaski to see the Sand Hill Cranes on their migration. Both boys became quite adept at using binoculars and scopes and were the first of a large group of adults, to spot an osprey and her nest on trip to Yellowstone!
Years passed and, while working a summer at a church camp, David became reacquainted with a pretty little gal he had known as a child. My husband and I just think the world of this girl and her family and always thought she would be a perfect match for our son. She was being pursued by another young man who was quite intent on dating her. He is from a large city in Illinois and was also working that summer at the camp. Now, I should tell you that Jessica is a country girl and a little bit of a tom boy. She is her daddy's fishing buddy and likes to spend time out of doors camping and hiking. One day, as all three were working along side one another out of doors at camp, a bird flew overhead and snatched another little bird from the sky and this young man said, "Wow, did you see that HAWK?!" Dave didn't say anything, but later Jessie overheard him telling some of the little campers to keep their eyes to the skies; he had seen a FALCON catch a bird in flight that morning. One of the campers asked how he knew it was a falcon and Dave explained that a hawk hunts air to ground and a falcon hunts air to air.
David and Jessica have now been married for 2 years. She says that she knew that day when David was telling the children about the falcon, he was the man for her! After all, in her words, "How could I ever date someone who didn't know the difference between a hawk and a falcon?" She and David are both attending school in West Lafayette. After one more year of pre-med at Purdue, he hopes to attend Indiana University's optometry program. We often wonder if his interest in lenses started with his early exposure to binoculars while searching the tree tops for Bald Eagles! We know he won the hand of the girl he adores, thanks in part to a class he took as a little boy at the Children's Museum in Indianapolis!
Name: Mary Robbins, member for more than 15 years
I grew up going to The Children's Museum of Indianapolis with my parents. Back in those days, the Polar Bear, the Indy Car and the Carousel were the big exhibits! After I grew up and started a family, my parents would take my children to the museum and once my parents passed, I continued to do so with my children and grandchildren.
When my sons, David and Jonathan, were young they often attended classes that the Children's Museum offered on Saturday mornings. We live in Crown Point, IN, which is in the Northwest corner of the state. It is a 2 and 1/2 hour drive to Indy and due to the time difference, we loose an hour when traveling there. We had to get on the road very early to make it to the classes on time! One of the classes they particularly enjoyed was, "Birds of Prey". They learned all about Eagles and other Raptors and even went, as a class, to Eagle Creek Park! They enjoyed the visit to Eagle Creek so much that we returned there many times as a family and learned even more about wild birds. The subject became such an interest to my boys that we even went to the Greenbrier in West Virginia so they could attend a seminar on falconry and made trips to Starved Rock State Park in Illinois during the winter when eagles stop there to feed in the warm waters around the dam. Yearly we would head to Jasper/Pulaski to see the Sand Hill Cranes on their migration. Both boys became quite adept at using binoculars and scopes and were the first of a large group of adults, to spot an osprey and her nest on trip to Yellowstone!
Years passed and, while working a summer at a church camp, David became reacquainted with a pretty little gal he had known as a child. My husband and I just think the world of this girl and her family and always thought she would be a perfect match for our son. She was being pursued by another young man who was quite intent on dating her. He is from a large city in Illinois and was also working that summer at the camp. Now, I should tell you that Jessica is a country girl and a little bit of a tom boy. She is her daddy's fishing buddy and likes to spend time out of doors camping and hiking. One day, as all three were working along side one another out of doors at camp, a bird flew overhead and snatched another little bird from the sky and this young man said, "Wow, did you see that HAWK?!" Dave didn't say anything, but later Jessie overheard him telling some of the little campers to keep their eyes to the skies; he had seen a FALCON catch a bird in flight that morning. One of the campers asked how he knew it was a falcon and Dave explained that a hawk hunts air to ground and a falcon hunts air to air.
David and Jessica have now been married for 2 years. She says that she knew that day when David was telling the children about the falcon, he was the man for her! After all, in her words, "How could I ever date someone who didn't know the difference between a hawk and a falcon?" She and David are both attending school in West Lafayette. After one more year of pre-med at Purdue, he hopes to attend Indiana University's optometry program. We often wonder if his interest in lenses started with his early exposure to binoculars while searching the tree tops for Bald Eagles! We know he won the hand of the girl he adores, thanks in part to a class he took as a little boy at the Children's Museum in Indianapolis!
Name: Mary Robbins, member for more than 15 years
