March 1, 2006
M-TEC students sparked by electrical program
New Great Lakes Children's Museum benefits from trade school's volunteers hands-on training
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Volunteer students from M-TEC's Electrical Trades program are helping shape the new Great Lakes Children's Museum. Part of a host of area businesses and organizations donating time, materials or money to help the four-year-old museum set up shop in their new home, these 15 students turned out Monday evening ready to work.
Guided by their teacher Dave Primeau as well as Michael Annis, who works for Feyen-Zylstra Electrical Engineering, they tore down the old and put up the new. Wiring, that is.
"You can ask questions and learn stuff," said Nathan Pierce, who already works in the electrical trade as an apprentice.
Primeau noted that the effort is valuable to the students, most of whom are second year apprentices. He plans to bring them back for more another session or two of work over the next few weeks.
"The renovation is very good work experience, it's hard to get a lab as real as this," he said. "They're starting to rough in the walls and a couple of the guys are doing clean up and a couple others are doing demolition work."
Annis is putting in a second shift at the museum with the students, after working there all day on the clock with Feyen-Zylstra.
"I want to make sure everything is done right and as fast and efficiently as they can," he said. "And they're learning as they go."
These and all the other contributions of time and money are key to the museum's making the move, noted John Noonan, executive director of the Great Lakes Children's Museum. The many organizations offering time, labor and materials are part of the museum's Construction Honor Roll.
"It's pretty important because the community doesn't have big rich Fortune 500 companies here," he said. "Like in Kalamazoo you're got Pfizer and in Midland you're got Dow."
The museum closed in September of last year at its West Front Street location, putting exhibits into storage until the new space was ready. After months of delay waiting for the space to empty out, their planned transformation of a former marine showroom got underway February 1. Volunteers have helped with the majority of the internal demolition, tearing out a dropped ceiling and paneling. Now, organizers hope to open later this spring in the new location on M-22 in Leelanau County.
The Museum will be located in a building across from Heritage Harbor in Elmwood Township. Michael Dow donated the land for the project, which will also be shared by three other related organizations: the Maritime Heritage Alliance, The Watershed Center and Traverse Area Community Sailing.
The 5,400 square foot freestanding building, which they will occupy exclusively, is just a little larger than their former homes. But the new space will be much better organized, lessons in efficiency learned after a few years of operation.
There will be two main exhibit areas as well as a new water table, plus an enlarged activities area and program room. The museum store will be slightly larger but the retail space will be much more useful that in the previous location.
"A lot of it is more efficient use, less dead space," said Noonan. "The activities room will be much bigger and there will be space for staging and organizing groups."