Kimmee Wenkel, President, Provided Update on Cognition
Cognition is truly a hub of activity for kids of all ages in Beulah. Kimmee's vision has come to life over the last 2 years. Cognition is crowded with projects, games, hands-on experiences, VR and a nature center with animals big and small: turtles, snake, hedgehog, hermit crab, tortoise and more, much more. They are also a popular destination for field trips from local elementary and middle schools as well as birthday parties.
They have grown to 150 memberships representing 500 family members, and their visitors in July 2018 were double those of July 2017. They registered a record 80 visitors on Labor Day alone. I can speak from experience that the grandchildren absolutely love the wide range and number of active involvement opportunities!
Benzie Sunrise Rotary provided an early grant of over $2000 in 2017 that continues to pay dividends.
But Cognition has outgrown their space!
The exciting news today was that very generous donors, John and Katherine (Kay) Miller, have donated an exciting new space for Cognition to expand. The building is located directly across from the Cherry Hut (the old Secretary of State office) and features parking in front along with high visibility on US-31. This is truly a dream come true for Kimmee and her team!
Cognition will be undertaking a capital campaign in April to raise the funds required to update the new facility, to relocate, and to expand their offering of activities. Target date for the relocation: June. Anyone questioning these plans would have to reflect back on 2017 when Cognition was a dream. Today's reality was a vision that few beside Kimmee and her family could have imagined then.
Watch for their grand opening!