IDEA SPARKED FROM CARD GAME TALK

It seemed only fitting that the Bootheel Youth Museum was founded as a place for children because the idea was sparked at a card game.

Three Malden women were playing bridge and talking about their recent visits to children's museums with their grandchildren. Eventually, they decided that Southeast Missouri needed its own version of a hands-on learning center like those they had visited in St. Louis and Memphis.

"We decided that we needed something for the children," said Carol Demaree, one of the founding members for the museum.

With only a few local activities like roller skating or movies, the children in Malden and most of Southeast Missouri had little to spark their imaginations or curiosity.

Six years later, the Bootheel Youth Museum opened in a converted Pepsi bottling plant. It shares building space with the Bootheel Education Center.

The museum may have started with ideas from three or four people, but it now has 250 volunteers. Many of them are high school students, Demaree said.

The entire community got involved with the building project when a fund-raising campaign began last fall.

A brick sidewalk and patio will eventually cover the ground outside the museum's entrance. Each brick is etched with the name of a person who donated to the building fund. Marble tiles, based on the same concept, will line the walls inside the museum foyer.

About $160,000 was raised through a neighborhood assistance program sponsored by the Missouri Department of Economic Development. The program allowed businesses to divert their tax dollars to a museum fund. The program is similar to a state grant.

But the local effort didn't stop with the fund-raising activities. Every display inside the museum was built or donated by area businesses and volunteers.

The City of Malden even donated a 1927 fire truck to be displayed inside the building. The truck came complete with a working engine and ladders. Children, donned in firefighting gear, are able to climb aboard the truck.