Children’s
Discovery Center
offers a world
of experiences

The Kakaako center aims
to engage and instruct young
visitors; next it will seek
an endowment fund

By Jerry Tune
Star-Bulletin

CHILDREN with smiling faces came this morning to the public opening of the Children's Discovery Center in Kakaako, once the site of the Kewalo incinerator.

For Loretta Yajima, the center's founder and president, the opening comes after 12 years and thousands of volunteer hours to raise $12 million in construction funds and get the exhibits built.

"The biggest thing for me is the volunteer effort," Yajima said. "It's most rewarding and heartwarming to see the selfless outpouring of support."

It takes a core group of more than 200 volunteers to operate the center, at 111 Ohe St. These volunteers, called People Assisting Learning (PALS), receive training to work with children.

As the staffing gets settled for the 38,000-square-foot facility, arrangements for school groups will be made. Letters will go out at the end of January, Yajima said.

The center now wants to raise an additional $3 million to hire key administrative staff and create an endowment for future support.

It is difficult to estimate how many children will go through the center next year. Yajima said that in 1994 at the Dole Cannery temporary facility, the center averaged about 2,500 visitors a month and more for special exhibits.

"But this center is seven times larger than that one," she said.

Tickets are $8 for adults and $6.75 for children from 2 to 17. Infants are free. For information on annual passes for families, individuals, seniors and grandparents, call the center at 592-5437.

Currently, the center is open Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and Tuesdays through Fridays from 9 a.m. to noon. It will be closed for the holidays. New hours will be set early next year, Yajima said.

Children will encounter life-size exhibits which they can touch and use. Some of these simulated experiences include checking their heartbeat, choosing where they want to bank, choosing what they will eat and finding out the food's nutrient value, climbing a treehouse, putting on judges' robes, checking out their ancestral heritage and milking cows.

The center has five areas, or galleries. A "Welcome Court" sets the stage for touching and interaction. "Fantastic You" allows a child to find out things about the human body. "Your Town" shows the child the different parts of the community, such as the fire station, supermarket and post office.

"Hawaiian Rainbows" deals with the different ethnic and cultural heritage in Hawaii, and "Your Rainbow World" allows for Hawaii children to learn about people in other nations.

The Children's Discovery Center was founded as a nonprofit organization in 1985 to meet the needs of about 260,000 school-age children in Hawaii. The primary target audience is children from 3 to 13 years old.

The center is on 55,000 square feet of state land, next to the Kakaako waterfront park, leased from the Hawaii Community Development Authority for 40 years at $1 per year.