What We're Doing to Fight the Flu

With the flu season in full swing, we want you to know the steps A.C. Gilbert's Discovery Village is taking to promote healthy habits and a safe environment for our visitors.

We are ...

-Cleaning 7 days a week as always
-Using a hospital-grade disinfectant that kills viruses, bacteria and fungi
-Conducting additional cleaning throughout the day
-Providing additional hand-sanitizer stations

Cleanliness has always been a concern at the children's museum, and now it's more important than ever. During your next visit, you'll see posters reminding you to wash your hands and cover your cough.

Here's a fun way to remind kids what they can do to fight the flu:

Download a Flu Fighter coloring sheet in Spanish or English.

Talking to Kids about the Flu

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has created a page for how to talk to your children about H1N1. The page focuses on what you can do to help your children understand the concerns about the flu and what they can do to stay healthy.

Print this handy parents' resource guide to get the conversation started.

Be a Flu Fighter!

As a hands-on children's museum, we know how important it is to keep those little hands clean. Here's a fun song that you can sing with your child to the tune of "Row Your Boat":

Wash, wash, wash my hands
Make them nice and clean
Rub the bottoms and the tops
And fingers in between!

For more tips on how to be healthy every day, visit this site: http://www.sesamestreet.org/parents/topics/health/flu/.

Enjoy the Fall Colors!

Looking for leaves to make a leaf pile? Well, we've got them! Cozy up to our hands-on exhibits and see the colors changing down in Riverfront Park. Photo courtesy of Ron Cooper.

A.C. Gilbert's Discovery Village is proud to partner with Arbor Education & Training for their Summer Work Experience Program. This summer we hosted four young adults in 3-week work experiences. These young adults worked 40 hours a week at the museum to increase their work-readiness skills and gain on-the-job experience. We sure appreciated having the extra helping hands! Thanks to Arbor for this great opportunity!

Congrats to our Raffle Winner!

Congratulations to Alix Truax of Salem who won the Melissa & Doug Wooden Railway Set in our raffle celebrating Imagination Station, our newly updated train room!

The train set caught the eye of her three-year-old grandson John during a recent visit to the museum.

"John went nuts! He wanted to take the train set home when he saw it. He's going to be so excited," Alix said.

She looks forward to setting up the train set at her home where her three grandchildren can enjoy it.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the raffle! Your contributions brought in $197 for our "Buddy Bucks" scholarship program!

And if you haven't seen it yet, make sure you stop by the train room to see the layout modeled on Riverfront Park. Test out our viewing bubble that lets you pop up and watch the trains run around your head!

Save the Date: September 13!

Don't be late! It's a very important date!

Celebrate grandparents all day September 13 with free admission to your favorite place to play!

Grandparents Free Admission Day

September 13, noon - 5 pm

Grandparents receive free admission with one child admission. For more information, call 503-371-3631 or visit www.acgilbert.org.