Kids space once again happenin’ place
Discovery museum downtown reopens
For 9-year-old Grant Grover and 11-year-old Emma Grover, Wednesday was their first outing since early March.
The Discovery Children’s Museum in downtown Las Vegas had a soft opening for members ahead of Thursday’s grand opening.
And Diane Grover brought her two youngest children to learn and play at the museum for the first time since it closed more than three months ago because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“This is our first outing outside of grocery store runs,” the mother of eight said. “I got the email that said they were only taking a limited amount of people by appointment only, and I knew it would be beneficial to the children.”
Grover said that ahead of the visit, Emma had been feeling anxious and Grant was apprehensive about the safety of the field trip.
Within minutes of arriving, the two were engaged in an exciting game of cannonball warfare aboard the museum’s pirate ship — and followed by two staff members, who sanitized every wheel, pirate sword and cannonball as the siblings were through with them.
“There’s a bunch of stuff you can’t do,” the 11-year-old said regarding some of the closed exhibitions.
“But there’s fun other stuff you can do. I’ve been stuck at home just doing schoolwork, so this is a nice change.”
The central climbing structure has been closed because of the difficulty in keeping it sanitized, and new,
easier-to-clean walls and floors have been installed in the Water World play area.
Toenterthebuilding,guestsolder than 2 must wear a facial covering andsubmittoatemperaturescan. And the socially distanced queue leads to the front desk, which has been outfitted with plexiglass shields.
Only 175 guests are allowed in the museumatanytime,10percentof the museum’s usual capacity.
“We started thinking about reopening since we closed,” said CEO Melissa Kaiser. “When we started our reopen strategy, we looked at what the casinos were putting out for their cleaning protocols.”
Kaiser said that through the CARES Act, she has been able to keep all of her staff on payroll through the closure.
Staff members started producing videos for families to engage in science at home, such as videos about germs and hand-washing.
“We were not laid off,” Kaiser said. “We were working.”
At the soft opening, staff members wiped down surfaces, answered guest questions and encouraged groups to stay 6 feet apart, even in elevators.
“It’s not so crowded; the appointment system helped,” said Matthew Okada, who was at the museum with his 3-year-old daughter, who made a suncatcher using glue and gel colors at a crafting station.
“It feels safe,” he said. “People are cleaning. It’s good.”
Contact Janna Karel at jkarel@ reviewjournal.com. Follow @jannainprogress on Twitter.