The Children's Museum of Sonoma County being built in west Santa Rosa received a $1 million boost Monday from a local foundation.
The Ernest L. and Ruth W. Finley Foundation awarded the capital campaign a grant for a science and imagination gallery in the museum, which is scheduled to open in late summer 2014 next to the Charles M. Schulz Museum on Steele Lane.
The gallery is designed as a 3,000-foot multi-level exhibit space including a child-size grocery store, demonstration beehive, laboratory, train station and other hands-on science activities.
Museum founder and CEO Collette Michaud said the gift provided "a huge step forward."
The grant boosts the funds raised to build the museum to $7.1 million, within reach of the $8.3 million capital campaign goal.
The museum has been operating since 2005 as a mobile exhibit at schools, fairs and other community events.
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