Shenandoah Valley Discovery Museum

2022 was a monumental year for the Discovery Museum. The Museum had a direct impact on over 50,000 people through field trips, camps, virtual field trips and inperson visits. Our total impact was beyond 68,000 people. We installed our first full exhibit since our move to this location in 2014. We transformed our entire first floor into build: scaffold the learning! The 7 unique components for this exhibit captures the hands-on learning intrinsically evident within the trades world. You begin your adventure learning how homes and communities are designed. Children then entrer the world of a residential build in-progress. They have the opportunity to safely interact and learn about the inner workings of electricity, plumbing and hvac systems tucked within the studs and subfloors of our home. Guests are invited to climb aboard a mini excavator and imagine themselves at a job site as part of the construction team. From the youngest visitors to their adult caregivers, we hope to inspire a deep appreciation for the skills and talents of the people responsible for the buildings that surround us. All of these educational kinesthetic exhibit components were funded by our local community partners. We continue to grow our attendance raising the number of active members familes from 390 families in 2021 and increasing to 618 families in 2022. Our summer camp schedule consisted of 40 total camps that welcomed 577 total campers. We offered scholarships to 33% of our campers. We doubled the amount of free attendance we had going from 1,514 in 2021 to over 3,900 in 2022 and raised our mission driven attendance, free or deeply discounted, from our standard 11% pre-covid to an amazing 17% of our overall attendance in 2022. The Shenandoah Valley Discovery Museum stays firmly committed to opening our doors as wide as possible.