This past month, a few Kingswood Oxford seniors took the initiative to get in touch with The Children’s Museum, located right next to KO and through negotiation achieved free admissions for all KO students and a closer relationship with KO’s long-standing neighbor.
The Children’s Museum is right next to the soccer fields on KO’s campus. So, a few varsity soccer players, senior Brandon Stake and senior Kyler Dzielak, were able to hear some of the animals at the museum during practice. “I heard something howling from the direction of the science museum,” Brandon said, “so we were curious and figured that during a free we would go and visit the museum.” Once Brandon and Kyler had time they visited the museum and learned of the costs of admission. “It cost $15 per person, but we were able to get it down to $5 each,” Brandon said. “We explained how we were just seeing the animals and not the children’s museum part.”
After their visit to the museum, they got in touch with the school. “I asked Mr. G what the realisticness of getting a permanent agreement with the Children’s Museum was,” Brandon said. “He let me get in touch with someone from the museum about a more permanent agreement between them and the school.” So, Brandon went back to talk to a woman at the museum who had given him the original discount about an agreement between the school. “I talked to that lady again about possibly getting a discount for KO students,” Brandon said. “After maybe a week or two of email exchanges, she talked to the upper management of the museum, and they agreed we could get in to the museum for free.”
Now all KO students can visit the museum for free, as long as they have their KO student ID, and they can go see the animals. “It was awesome when we went [to the museum], just like we figured it would be,” Brandon said. “The animal parts of the Children’s Museum are really cool.”
While it is great that KO students now have free admission to the Children’s Museum, a great new opportunity for KO students also opened up through communication with the museum. “There are volunteer opportunities they offered us,” Brandon said, “as ways for KO students to get community service hours.” Now, KO students have a great opportunity to help out at the Children’s Museum and enjoy its offerings for free.
