“We do not want to close. We want to keep this open for the kids,” said Deborah Ugalde, the Exploration Discovery Center’s Creative Director.
Months after the Exploration Discovery Center’s four-year anniversary, Ugalde said they had record-setting lows for attendance.
“We do have some very nice donors that give us money from time to time and keep us going, but we were hit really hard this year in September and October with, not enough people walking in the door,” Ugalde said. “Basically, it's between memberships and the people that walk in the door on a daily basis that keep us alive.”
Megan Delay lives in Grover Beach and reached out to KSBY earlier this week, concerned about the discovery center’s future. I spoke with her Friday about what losing this space could mean for her and her son.
“It's heartbreaking because I know a lot of parents are there almost daily,” Delay said. “It's their home away from home.”
Delay said the children’s center doesn’t just help her son make friends, it also allows her to build a community with other local parents.
She said having a space outside of home and school for children to play is important.
“For children who don't necessarily have a backyard to go explore and play in or who aren't able to go to the park that day, they can just go and explore and have a great time,” Delay said. “It's such a safe, clean environment that it's something that the community really needs.”
After teaching for 40 years in Santa Maria, Ugalde said she opened the nonprofit with the idea of teaching kids how to be kids and interacting with each other in a safe space.
“They're going to get to electronics,” Ugalde said. “But, the brains need to develop problem solving, working with real life interactions, which will make them better with electronics in the future. They need to do all of that brain building with their hands and with their brains early on.”
The center has started a fundraiser for donations from the public, raising over 70% of their posted goal of $5,000 as of Friday afternoon.
She said they need to raise at least 5-thousand dollars to keep the doors open. In the meantime, the Exploration Discovery Center has limited its hours to Wednesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
