By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
After two years of hard work, the grand opening for InspireU, the downtown Children’s Discovery Center is next week.
The old Plymouth Building is almost unrecognizable nowadays, filled with colorful walls and fun children’s activities in a new children’s museum in St. Joseph.
Construction on InspireU began in November of 2022, and now over two years later, it will open its doors to several hundreds, if not thousands of children, one day after Christmas.
InspireU Director Katherine Patterson-Paronto, who came on in March, says she’s been waiting a long time to see kids play in the space, and says it was wonderful to see during soft openings this past weekend
“We had families playing together, everybody was playing, parents, kids, grandparents, all of them together, and I really loved being able to give this experience to them and be a part of it,” Patterson-Paronto tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post.
Soft openings have welcomed Mosaic employees as well as employees of Lehr Construction, who did work on the center, to explore and experience the museum.
Mosaic Life Care Foundation President Julie Gaddie says it’s been wonderful watching children running into InspireU
“And their young parents looking around in awe thinking I can’t believe we’re in St. Joseph,” Gaddie explains. “And those kids just can’t get here fast enough and it’s so fulfilling to watch them play.”
Another series of soft openings will be held this weekend, December 20th through the 22nd. If you’re interested in attending, you can register at mlcfndn.ticketapp.org/portal/product/19/events. Admission is $12 a person for the soft openings and can only be purchased online.
Patterson-Paronto says while this children’s museum fits the mold of others across the country, what sets it apart is it can’t really exist anywhere else
“We are very much St. Joe,” Patterson-Paronto says. “So you’ll look through the place and there will be big things you notice like the Missouri Theatre, but there will be tiny things too, like some of the posters are of stuff here, our murals have iconic buildings, we have career panels throughout the space and a lot of them are local folks who work that job, so that’s really the thing that sets us apart.”
The Grand Opening is now set for December 26th. Tickets can be purchased at the museum, there are also several membership options already available online.
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.
