A who’s-who of Bay-area agriculture helped underwrite improvements to a children’s play area at the Mid-Michigan Children's Museum in Saginaw — an exhibit where kids can play while learning the story of agriculture in the Great Lakes Bay Region. Michigan Farm Bureau President Carl Bednarski was among those present Jan. 21 at the opening ceremony for the upgraded Aunt Sugar’s Farm & Uncle Pickle’s Barn gallery.
The gallery was established when the museum opened in 2008 through gifts from Michigan Sugar Company and Hausbeck Pickles & Peppers. Both companies have again made significant financial gifts to upgrade the gallery. Support for the project also comes from DHT Group (Dave Hausbeck Trucking), the Michigan Farm Bureau, and Star of the West Milling Company.
The centerpiece of the gallery upgrades is a loft constructed inside the barn where children can play and access a new spiraling slide coming out of the barn. Additionally, there is a new conveyor system and chute children may use to move foam sugar beets and pickles from the field to the market.
“The entire upgrade is designed to help better tell the story of agriculture, specifically how crops like sugar beets and pickles get from the farm field to your table,” said Rob Clark, Michigan Sugar’s director of communications and community relations. “We wanted to create a space that has some layers and new spaces for kids to play and explore. Plus, a slide is just fun for kids. We’re very excited to see how they interact in this refreshed space.”
Mid-Michigan Children’s Museum officials worked with ZENTX Media Group of Freeland to complete the upgrades.
The changes to the barn come on the heels of another significant addition to the gallery — a mural that helps tell the story of agriculture in Michigan and the Great Lakes Bay Region.
Painted by Grand Rapids artist Michael Pfleghaar, the mural features fields of common Michigan crops: sugar beets, pickles, corn, soybeans, wheat, potatoes, hay, pumpkins and apples, as well as a farm with livestock and horses.
Children can move foam pickles and sugar beets from the field, up a conveyor to a new barn loft, down a chute to a packaging conveyor, into canisters and onto a truck.
Lori Hausbeck, executive projects manager at Hausbeck Pickles & Peppers, said she envisions families interacting with the mural in fun ways.
“I can see parents and their children playing little eye-spy and counting games for sure,” she said. “A parent might ask their child, ‘how many clouds do you see,’ ‘can you find the fox in the painting,’ or ‘point to the pumpkin patch.’ There are endless possibilities and what’s really great is that all of this interaction will not only be fun for kids, but it will be educational.”
Mid-Michigan Children’s Museum President Ann Doyle said she could not be happier with how the upgraded gallery has come together.
“We are so excited to cut the ribbon and re-open Aunt Sugar’s Farm and Uncle Pickle’s Barn, and we know area families are equally looking forward to exploring the new space,” she said. “We’ve had many visitors over the past month asking when the exhibit would be opened because they want to come just for that. We know it is going to be a very popular space.”
Doyle said the project wouldn’t have been possible without the significant gifts made by the contributors.
“We are grateful to Michigan Sugar Company, Hausbeck Pickles & Peppers, DHT Group, Michigan Farm Bureau and Star of the West Milling Company for their incredible commitment to our museum and this gallery,” she said. “Together, we are Making Life Sweeter for area children and their families, while fulfilling an important mission of the museum — to combine fun with education.”