Kimbookai Children's Museum
History: How We Got Started
The concept for an indoor children’s museum in the Tri-Cities emerged in January 2001. Finding a lack of meaningful places where our small children could play, a group of stay-at-home mothers wondered whether they could bring a children’s museum to the area. The area, we believed, could support one given the fact that the closest childrens' museums were more than thirty miles away in cities like San Jose, Palo Alto, Berkeley, and Sausalito.
As an initial step in the development of the concept for a children’s museum in this area, we visited established childrens' museums throughout the greater Bay Area to see what they had to offer. We also met with the directors and staff of these museums; getting great feedback on what we could do start a museum of our own. We then sat down to talk more about our dreams for the space and to develop a more concrete concept for the museum.
The next step was the development of a business plan. We put together an initial plan that included market research and analysis, general ideas for exhibit areas with a proposed layout, an organizational structure, operational and staff needs, and an estimated operational budget.
After putting together an initial draft of the business plan, we then set out to incorporate the organization. With pro-bono help from a group of lawyers, the organization was incorporated in June 2003. A year later, we received tax exempt status becoming a 501(c) (3) organization.
