As a mother of two, Renee LaRocco used to bandage scraped knees and pick up stray toys for free. Then about a year ago, she decided to make a living out of it at the newly renovated Santa Maria Valley Discovery Museum.

Sunday, LaRocco, the museum's manager, supervised about 40 children as they ran about the museum's floorspace. LaRocco signed onto the job last January just as the museum was shipping boxes from a storefront in the Town Center West shopping plaza to its current location, an old Coca-Cola bottling facility on the corner of McClelland and Jones streets.

The new building, totaling 13,000 square feet with a maximum occupancy of 500, has played a large part in the success of the museum since the facility opened in late January 2005, said LaRocco, who estimates that about 80 people will pass through the museum on a busy day.

“We can have 100 kids at a time from schools,” on the site, she said. “We're hoping to be one of the tourist attractions of the Central Coast.”

On the museum's agenda for the next year is the completion of an aquarium that will house leopard sharks picked from local waters by University of California, Santa Barbara, marine biologists, LaRocco said. She anticipates its completion at the end of 2006.

In addition, the museum is working with the city of Santa Maria to create an interactive exhibit that shows kids “what happens when water goes down the sewer,” she said. Kids will be able to crawl through pipes and culverts supplied by the city's public works department, she said.

Cary Runnells of Paso Robles hosted his 4-year-old son's birthday party at the museum Sunday.

Advertisement

“We wish we had something like this in the North County,” said Runnells, who estimated he comes to the museum with his family two to three times a year.

Runnells said exposing kids to science at an early age stimulates them creatively. His son seemed to gravitate toward the tractor exhibit, leading his father to speculate on his future.

“Maybe he'll want to be a mechanic,” Runnells said.

Stan Oklobdzija can be reached at 739-2159 or at

soklobdzija@santamariatimes.com.

January 30, 2006