The Children’s Museum of Branch County can now restore and move into a 19th century building in downtown Coldwater, following a fundraising effort.

“We’ve always wanted to go back downtown,” board member Shana Grife said. “Finding a space has been the challenge.”

According to Grife, the project to relocate the CMBC to downtown Coldwater costs $500,000. CMBC raised $73,000 through fundraising on Patronicity, a website that the Michigan Economic Development Corporation uses to match donations toward public projects.

“The goal is to have an inclusive platform that allows local residents and stakeholders to play a role in projects that will transform their communities into places where talent wants to live, businesses want to locate, and entrepreneurs want to invest,” according to the MEDC website. 

Grife said half of the fundraising money will go directly toward improving the museum, while the other half will go to the Downtown Development Association, which owns the new building and has been working with the CMBC to borrow government money for the project.

“We’ve really focused a lot on our fundraising, trying to add more fun, educational stuff to the museum. Largely, our money goes for fun stuff,” Grife said.

Grife said the DDA’s money goes toward the essentials.

The new location will be significantly larger than the current location. One of the planned improvements will be a large retail section at the front of the store. 

“We’re hoping that we have items you can’t get at big box stores,” Grife said.

The CMBC offers a variety of exhibits for children, such as a large wooden barn playset and an engineering toy called a Rigamajig. The new facility, Grife said, will include a multi-purpose STEAM classroom.

“It’s fun to see how excited they are to come, and it’s also, in a way, fun to see how sad they get when they have to leave,” Grife said. “When I first got involved, I was always excited when we had new visitors. And then the president of our board said, ‘Really, you should be more excited about our returning visitors because that means they had such a good time they want to come back, and there’s more for them to experience.’ Kids tend to bug their parents and want to come back.”

Local families from the Hillsdale, Reading, and Coldwater areas often visit the nonprofit CMBC.

Coldwater resident Jessica Carpenter said her 3-year-old daughter Adelynn loves to play with all of the toys at the CMBC. 

“I don’t think she has a favorite thing to play with,” Carpenter said. “I think she’s pretty much played with everything here. I love how they have all the different activities. The music is amazing, and I don’t have to take it home to listen to it.”