WonderTrek Blog
Stories, Updates & Exploration
WonderTrek Inquiry: Exploring Risk in Play
What We’re Asking and Why Through our ongoing Online Risk Series, we’re asking families, caregivers, and educators how they define “safe enough” and how that varies across different settings, ages, abilities, and experiences. We want to understand how comfort levels...
Celebrating Local Generosity: Cosmetic & Family Dentistry Sparks Adventure!
This giving season, we’re celebrating the power of local generosity and the difference it makes for children and families across our region. We’re thrilled to recognize Cosmetic and Family Dentistry for sponsoring WonderTrek’s Outfitter Station, the heart of...
Posts & Platforms Receives a New Name: Roots & Rigging!
Roots & Rigging Exhibit Naming Contest Results 🎉 Big news, WonderTrek family! 🎉 After an amazing outpouring of creativity in the exhibit-naming contest, we are thrilled to announce that the winning name is Roots & Rigging. The entry was submitted...
October 2025 WonderTrek At-home!
A Fall Scavenger Hunt for Kids! Take the children outside and see how many colors of fall you can find together! Look for red and orange leaves, yellow flowers, green pine needles, brown acorns, or even the bright blue sky. Bring a basket or bag to collect safe...
WonderTrek Inquiry | Parent Messaging
What We Asked and Why We aimed to understand how signage influences parents’ perception of play as a valuable form of learning. Our goal was to identify which messages encourage parents to pause, reflect, talk with their children, and see play as meaningful. Short,...
Voyage Magazine Interview with Sheila Boldt about WonderTrek Children’s Museum
"Today we’d like to introduce you to Sheila Boldt. Hi Sheila, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?I started working with WonderTrek in February 2023 as a contractor doing grant writing, and by October 2024, I was hired part-time...
Reader Opinion: WonderTrek Museum | Brainerd Dispatch
Investing in our children always makes sense. The return on our investment is priceless. During a recent groundbreaking for the WonderTrek Children’s Museum, it was declared, “I have been to a lot of groundbreakings, but this is the most exciting one I have seen.”...
Children’s Museum Breaks Ground in Baxter | Brainerd Dispatch
BAXTER — A project 10 years in the making is now taking shape. On a woodsy piece of land in Baxter lies the first stages of a place of possibility and wonder, where nature meets learning and imaginations can run as wild as the children behind them The WonderTrek...
Groundbreaking Ceremony | Lakeland Television
Lakeland News was on-site for our Groundbreaking Ceremony on July 22, 2025! Click to watch their video recap of the ceremony, Phase 1 & a summary of WonderTrek Children Museum's future 9-acre site in Baxter, MN. Shoutout to Miles Walker with Lakeland News, Thank...
Shovels Hit the Dirt for WonderTrek Children’s Museum in Baxter | Widseth
Excitement filled the air today in Baxter as community members, local officials, and project partners gathered to celebrate the groundbreaking of the WonderTrek Children’s Museum. The event marks a major milestone for the long-anticipated museum, which will provide a...
KAXE/KBXE Live Radio Interview!
🗣 THANK YOU to KAXE/KBXE for the interview with Sheila Boldt, Communications Manager, on June 12th! It was great to share where WonderTrek is in development, why it's SO important for kids to have time to PLAY! AND - with support, when we're hoping to open this...
WonderTrek Breaking Ground 2025
Theresa Bourke from The Brainerd Dispatch interviewed Sheila Boldt, communications manager, at The Franklin Arts Center Interim Play Lab to discuss the 2025 Phase 1 ground-breaking in Baxter, MN as well as why it will be beneficial to our region. Kelley Humphrey,...
WonderTrek IN the News
Sammy Holladay from Lakeland News interviewed two WonderTrek staff members during a WonderTrek on Wheels visit to the Brainerd Public Library! Vanessa Bauer and Aimee Tagtmeier talk to Sammy about ground-breaking plans for Phase One of the WonderTrek Children’s...
Follow Your Wonder!
WonderTrek Children’s Museum provides off-site programs for schools, camps, and community events. Currently, the museum has a Play Lab at the Franklin Arts Center. Until the museum is built, the majority of the programs are offered as a mobile option in the...
Children’s museums: why they are essential to our children, families, and greater Minnesota communities
Maria Prozinski, Executive Director WonderTrek Children’s Museum For some of us, the giddy excitement of a school field trip to the museum is a treasured memory. We remember what it was like to walk underneath towering dinosaur skeletons, to discover what electrical...
A new coalition of children’s museums!
Greater Minnesota Children’s Museum Coalition members will serve nearly 500,000 guests annually, capturing visitors from nearly 100% of the state’s 87 counties. The coalition includes Otter Cove Children’s Museum, the Children’s Museum of Southern Minnesota, Duluth...
Grant Announcement
WonderTrek Children’s Museum recently received notice that the MN Humanities Center's committee for the Legacy Fund's competitive children's museum grant, has chosen to award WonderTrek Children’s Museum full proposal of $241,000 over an 18 months period starting...
I’m ready to help!
We’re building something extraordinary at WonderTrek Children’s Museum, but we can’t do it alone. With your support, we can bring this vision to life. Every gift moves us closer to opening day — and closer to a place where play is endless and exploration opens every door to wonder.
“So exciting to see this new museum come to life
We love the community events and Studio Explorations!”
– Mary
“I’ve been able to attend and observe at several of WonderTrek’s Studio Explorations.
Each time, I saw children across a range of ages discover something fascinating to explore, sometimes giant blue blocks, colorful scarves, balls, or wobbly worlds. This kind of play—child-directed, social, physical, and joyful—is not only fun, but also critical to children’s well-being.”
– Jeanne
We're ready for you
After ten years of dreaming up a children's museum like no other, we’re gearing up to open WonderTrek’s Outdoor Adventure in early 2026.
But first, we need you. More than $6,000,000 has been raised thanks to visionary donors and lots of grant writing. Now, we’re in the final push and WonderTrek needs everyone who cares for kids and the vitality of our region to join the campaign. With $1 million to go, every donation counts!
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