Children's Museum of Sierra in Oakhurst, CA was founded in 1995 by individuals and parents of the mountain community that joined to find programs to help their children learn more. Due to a grant by United Way of Madera County, the museum was open to the public in 1997. The original museum was small consisting of only 1000 square feet, but eventually had to move to a larger location. The location of the museum today allows them 4,000 square feet of space for all their exhibits. The present location of the Children's Museum is 24 miles from Yosemite National Park, so the museum gets many tourists on vacation.
The museum is a place for young people age 2-12 to discovery new experiences and this is accomplished with the many hands-on exhibits and displays. They provide the young people with many programs to help them learn about life and making choices themselves. Approximately 1,000 visitors come to the museum each month, with most of the people being the local children that live in the mountains and vacationers from Yosemite.
The Educational Enhancement Foundation, a non-profit organization, operates the museum. In addition to this foundation, the museum gets its funding from private contributions, grants, admission fees and special events as well as sales from the gift shop. The museum is kept open through the help of many generous volunteers.
The one way that the Children's Museum differs from others is that they do not "collect" things to display in the museum. They have many displays in the museum already to help teach young children about different areas of life. They have displays on the Medical Area of life, which teaches them about the medical profession and ways they help us. The Good Sense Bank Exhibit shows the children how the world of banking works. Each of their different exhibits teaches the children about different occupations and ways of life such as Emergency Services, Archaeology, Artists, etc.
