YouZeum opens in good health

By Kiran Kaur

Published May 9, 2008

Area schools’ health classes better watch their backs — there’s a new museum in town, and it’s already making waves in Columbia health education.

The YouZeum, located at the intersection of Sixth and Cherry streets, is a new interactive museum that opened its doors to the public on May 1. It’s not your typical cookie-cutter “dusty artifacts” kind of museum — it’s hands-on, and it’s all about you.

The museum features three floors all about body science. But rather than just reading line after line about how calcium is good for the body or the importance of exercise, visitors are able to interact with the exhibits. They can order “food” at the All Foods Diner and learn about which foods are good for them. They can test their heart rates, challenge their balance by standing on a squishy half circle without holding onto anything, interview athletes in the YouNewz room and flex their memory skills at the Brainasium.

The basement features an emergency room simulation — fully equipped with a nurse’s station, a simulation dummy named Ed and a replication ambulance that includes an emergency medical service challenge among many other educational interactive exhibits.

Executive director Gwen Robbins said the museum is the brainchild of founding board member Ann Cohen and the Boone County Medical Society Alliance, a community service club focusing on health care.

Robbins said the YouZeum encompasses all that Columbia is about.

“Columbia has two key components,” Robbins said. “It is an education hub and a health care destination. It’s a perfect environment where a health center would survive.”

The YouZeum building has quite a history, too. It was first a federal building and a post office until the U.S. government decided to dispose of it.

The YouZeum applied to use the facility and finally secured the building between 2003 and 2004.

“We did have to spend quite a bit of money to remodel and bring it up to standards,” Robbins said.

The majority of the YouZeum’s funds have come from private sources and a federal grant. The state of Missouri has helped it through tax credit programs and the two biggest donations have come from the Boone Hospital Center and doctors Ira and Gale Hubbell.

Robbins said the overall mission of the YouZeum is to provide a fun museum that’s hands-on and interactive, but where people can learn at the same time.

“What’s secondary that I think we provide besides education is that it’s economic,” Robbins said. “We’re attracting visitors from outside. Not only will they come to the museum, they will eat downtown and shop.”

Not only is the museum appealing to visitors, but it attracts newcomers to Columbia for volunteer opportunities as well. Sue and Ralph Hovelman recently moved to the area from Oklahoma and wanted to give their time to something they thought was worthwhile. They learned of the YouZeum in a newspaper advertisement.

“We were fortunate to be here during the calls for volunteers,” Sue said.

As volunteers, they help groups move through different exhibits and direct questions to where they can be answered. They also serve as the eyes and ears for appraisals.

“I heard a fourth grader from Jefferson City say that this was the ‘funnest’ place she’s ever been,” Sue said.

But the benefits don’t stop there. Robbins said the YouZeum is an ideal place for student internships, especially for students of education and medicine.

“It’s a community resource that has value for all of us,” Robbins said.

Robbins said the YouZeum has hosted a lot of field trips from both high school and elementary school students. On Thursday, Columbia Catholic School second-graders journeyed through the museum, watching interactive videos and playing with the exercise bikes.

Laura Sasser, a chaperone, said that the museum’s curriculum matched what the students had been learning in class.

“They just finished doing a unit about the body,” Sasser said.

Those who have been around Columbia for a while have seen the building transform from part of the government infrastructure into the YouZeum.

John Yates, another chaperone for Columbia Catholic, has been in Columbia since 1963 after graduating from MU. He remembers working at the Columbia Daily Tribune and pushing a cart down to the building.

“I remember when this was the post office building and when it was the federal building,” Yates said. “We would throw the paper to them.”

Others have seen the transition from a government building to an educational hub.

“I’ve seen this place, they’ve been working on it forever,” said Scott Rawlings, who has lived in Columbia for the past 16 years.

He said he was excited about it but didn’t know when it was going to open.

“My best friend’s father-in-law helped to construct a lot of this,” said Jodi Stephens, who said it is why she decided to come check it out with Rawlings. She said she thought the museum helped cater to the artsy side of Columbia.

Robbins said that the museum has exhibits designed for a variety of ages. Some things are meant for adults and some are meant for kids.

“A lot of adults are surprised that there is so much up here,” she said. “There is an assumption that is meant for young kids.”

But she and others will agree that, though Trix may be for kids, the YouZeum is for everyone.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Yates said. “But it’s finally here.”