SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KY3) – The Birthplace of Route 66 festival returns this weekend for the first time in three years (due to the pandemic), and while there are many activities in conjunction with the event, a hidden gem for kids s they hide in plain sight.
“We’re here all the time,” said Discovery Center Executive Director Rob Blevins of the interactive science center for children on St. Louis in downtown Springfield, right on old Route 66.
So if you find the kids restless under the hot sun at the Birthplace of Route 66 festival, the Discovery Center can be an oasis of fun.
“We’re going to have air conditioning,” Blevins said. “If it rains, you can get in and out of the rain. And we’ll have our 60,000 square feet of amazing hands-on science open and available to the public on those days.”
What if you haven’t been to the Discovery Center since the pandemic broke out?
“Come back and rediscover us,” Blevins said. “We have countless new exhibitions. We have a brand new gallery called Lu Interactive Indoor Digital Playground. It’s a 16 by 20 foot wall where you take these soft dodge balls and throw them against the wall, and it interacts with you. It has educational and game options. We have an augmented reality sandbox where you interact with the sand, and there’s a visualization that’s projected on top of the sand that actually changes in real time. We have the Minecraft exhibit where kids can build with Minecraft blocks in real life. We have an indoor farm where we grow 500 to 1,000 plants a month, which allows us to feed our community and our school children.”
Right now, the center is in the midst of summer camps, but that’s just part of the school, tutoring and daycare programs the Discovery Center offers as it continues to expand its services to the community.
“The Discovery Center actually provided an anchor to revitalize and reestablish downtown Springfield,” Blevins noted. “When we were founded in the early ’90s, downtown Springfield wasn’t necessarily a place where families wanted to go. By choosing this location, we’ve made it clear that this is a safe and good place.”
In addition to being a place for families to hang out during the Birthplace of Route 66 Festival, the Discovery Center is also hosting a Kids’ Food Festival on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., where families can sample a variety of restaurants locals
“Hot dogs, pancakes, ravioli, pizza, all the food kids love with water, popcorn, snow cones and ice cream,” Blevins said. “We’ll also have bounce houses, slides and a couple of water activities.”
Tickets, which include food, drinks and Discovery Center entry, are:
$10 for adult members and $5 for children
$15 for non-member adults and $10 for non-member children
The money raised from the event goes to a good cause.
“It’s going to help us raise scholarship funds for low-income families so they can come visit the Discovery Center and interact with it the same way everyone else does,” Blevins said.
To report a correction or error, please email digitalnews@ky3.com
Copyright 2022 KY3. All rights reserved.
