Southwest Kansas will soon get its first children’s museum. Red Dog Children’s Museum received a $28,435 grant from Kansas Tourism Monday morning at the Russell Child Development building in Garden City. The museum was one of 14 recipients of Kansas Tourism’s 2023 Attraction Development Grants. Additionally, the museum received two other local grants from the Finney County Convention and Visitor’s Bureau and the Garden City Co-op to help kickstart it. The museum has been a project of Jenny and Trevor Hands for the past two years. Together the couple has a son, Graden, and when they travel, they go to children’s museums anytime they’re near one, Jenny Hands said. Jenny Hands said the idea for the children’s museum came to her and her husband while sitting on their living room couch because they were inspired by their son, their travels and because they have always “wanted to do something” for their community. “But in the research of planning this, we found of the 10 nearest children’s museums to Garden City, eight of them are outside of state lines and they’re an average of 300 miles away,” she said. “That is not accessible for our community, and we just started to develop a passion for educating children in our community and giving them the same opportunities that children in larger cities have.” Thus, the Red Dog Children’s Museum was born.
Source: Garden City Telegram
