GREAT FALLS — There is always something going on at the Children’s Museum of Montana in Great Falls, and they were busy Friday with the Cascade County Sheriff’s Office in attendance for the opening of their new exhibit, designed like an old Western Sheriff’s office.
The Little Falls Sheriff’s Office is designed to provide cognitive challenges in addition to being an exhibit kids can play in.
The Children’s Museum said their goal for the exhibit is to give kids more role models and the Sheriff’s office was happy to oblige as they seek to be community focused as well.
Museum director Sherrie Neff said the exhibit design was immediately approved by the Sheriff’s Office and they wanted to be a partner and sponsor the exhibit.
Neff explained, “We started this because one, our kids need more role models and our Sheriff’s deputies are an excellent role model for them to have. We put a design to the deputies, and they approved it right away and wanted to be a part of and sponsored it and so through volunteers and their sponsorship and our staff we were able to create a pretty neat exhibit.”
Kids got the chance to explore Sheriff’s patrol vehicles as well as look inside the brand-new jail cell in the museum to see what the job is like and hear from officers about what they do.
Deputy Logan Livingston said their office is proud to have community partners like this and want to be a part of the community as much as they can: “We’re really big on community policing and we believe that an exhibit like this might help children learn that we are approachable, when they’re in need or they need help that they can approach any law enforcement officer and ask for help."
The Children’s Museum says they’re happy to have partners like the Sheriff’s office and hope to create similar relationships with future exhibits. The museum is also in the process of building a music and technology exhibit and is looking for old musical instruments and technology not being used to be donated.
The Children's Museum of Montana is located at 22 Railroad Square in downtown Great Falls (behind the Civic Center). Click here to visit the website.
