Golden celebration at DuPage Children’s Museum

King Midas isn’t the only one with the golden touch.

On Friday, June 24, the DuPage Children’s Museum will be going gold as museum-goers help celebrate the organization’s 24-year legacy.

“I think it’s a good opportunity to celebrate where the museum has come from in the past years,” Dana Peters, assistant marketing manager at the Naperville-based museum, said.

Starting in 1987 in the back of a station wagon, museum founders Louise Beem and Dorthy Carpenter trekked to preschools and park districts to foster a love of learning.

From park district buildings to the three-story facility at 301 N. Washington St. that now houses the museum, Peters believes the Golden Birthday Celebration (24 years on June 24, the day of the museum’s founding, get it?) will help bolster the museum’s role within the community.

“It’s a great way to create more awareness of everything the museum has to offer and of looking forward to everything in the future,” Peters said.

In celebration of the museum’s birthday there will be a special $2.40 admission cost as well as birthday-related art projects for kids, including birthday hats and the option to help decorate a giant cake sculpture.

While families explore the museum’s many interactive exhibits, the venue’s summer teen volunteers will be selling birthday-themed treats at an all-day bake sale.

With the coming of the museum’s golden birthday, Peters stresses a goal of community involvement and a desire to “do a little more outreach” at the DuPage Children’s Museum in years to come.

At 11 a.m. Naperville Mayor George Pradel will lead revelers in a museumwide rendition of “Happy Birthday.”

“I’m thrilled that they even feel that I can sing that song,” Pradel said.

All joking aside, Pradel says he loves to sing and will be performing the national anthem during Naperville’s Ribfest celebration over the July 4 weekend.

Of the “Happy Birthday” song, though, Pradel seems fairly confident.

“‘Happy Birthday’ doesn’t have too many words that are foreign to me so I think we can make it happen,” Pradel said.

At the root of the celebration, and the purpose of the DuPage Children’s Museum at large, are the children of Naperville. It’s a cause Pradel wholeheartedly agrees with.

“Children are a big part of my life,” Pradel said. “And I guess I’m just a big kid at heart.”