Board members of the Fall River Children's Museum held an official Grand Opening for the North Main Street facility on May 18, 2013. Following a brief ceremony, Executive Director Jo-Anne Sbrega led a tour of each of the rooms on the main floor feature different aspects of the program. Located in the historic former Bristol County Superior Courthouse, the Museum has been open since March, five days a week, from Wednesday to Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., on Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 4:00 p.m. Admission is $8 for children older than one, and $5 per person fro group field trips. "This is our Grand Opening this morning, which means we've completed phase one, our first floor," noted Sbrega. On the tour, she pointed out different rooms dedicated to music, circles, transportation, dinosaurs and her favorite, the Water Room. That special room has tables with reservoirs full of water and all kinds of funnels, tubes, buckets and sponges for playing and at a height that a child in a wheelchair can use. A drain in the floor and special epoxy flooring make it impervious to water. The room also contains a wall of colorful tiles designed by children as part of a fundraiser to pay for the construction of the room along with a $10,000 donation from the Donaldson Foundation. Click here for the Herald News article. Click here for a seven-minute video tour. For more information or to volunteer time or donate money, go to the web page or call 508-672-0033.

(Top row) Children's Museum Executive Director Jo-Anne Sbrega talks with Miss Fall River, Jullian Zucco, following the opening ceremonies. (Row two, left and right) Two-year-old Quinn Bogle tries his hand a playing a guitar while Alexandria Grace and her four-year-old daughter, Mariah, try out some percussion tubes in Violet's Music Room. (Row two, center) Bristol Community College Early Childhood Education Department Chairperson Ravitha Amarasingham talks with Ms. Sbrega at the opening. (Row three) Ms. Sbrega shows off the wall of donated tiles in the water room where Brandon Cardelli and Rebecca Colaneri play while Rebecca's mom, Pam Colaneri, watches. (Bottom row) Children, inclduing eight-year-old Paige Ayre, left, and two-year-old Savannah Ahadsy, center, play in the Diosaur Room while Board Members Chrisanne Tyrell and Donalda Silva look at their photos of the event.