|
RCS FAMILY NIGHT |
In August, a new children’s museum opens in downtown Roanoke in which kids will climb into mini-cars and pedal down a road through a “town” featuring a Carilion Clinic hospital, Kroger grocery store, Hometown Bank building …
And Roanoke Catholic School.
RCS is a major sponsor of “KidSquare,” Roanoke’s first children’s museum that is designed to be “a premier destination for families … with hands-on activities that boost educational play, regional economic impact and sense of community involvement.” Designed for children 8 and younger, KidSquare will be located in Center in the Square’s third floor, which once housed the History Museum of Western Virginia before it moved earlier this year to the O. Winston Link Museum.
RCS’ investment in KidSquare is being funded through donations by Dr. William “Kip” Thompson and his wife, Beni, in honor of Kip’s mother, Sue Thompson, an RCS teacher and administrator for 33 years; and former theology teacher Larry Fischbach and his wife, Wanda, who believe in the museum’s potential to introduce and recruit new families to RCS.
An estimated 40,000 people will annually visit KidSquare, which will also feature party rooms, a theater, forest, nursery room, reading nook and toddler play area.
“This school will essentially be a miniature Roanoke Catholic classroom with our name, logo and identity branded all over it,” says Michael Hemphill, RCS director of marketing. “In addition to interactive, hands-on activities, the room will have distinctly Roanoke Catholic features such as a prayer corner and uniforms for children to dress up in. We’ll have a virtual tour video of Roanoke Catholic running at all times. And the venue will provide our students — our best ambassadors — an opportunity to volunteer after school and weekends in what will be for us a year-round open house!”
The sponsorship also provides RCS:
- Free field trips to KidSquare for RCS PreK and Kindergarten classes.
- Opportunities for RCS teachers and students to provide programming in KidSquare.
- Two free rentals each year of Center in the Square’s rooftop.
- Two free after-hours “RCS Family Nights” each year in KidSquare and the Roanoke Pinball Museum.