Discovery Place Kids-Huntersville is taking a stroll down memory lane as the children’s museum celebrates its 10th anniversary.

Officially opening its doors on October 23, 2010, the Museum has welcomed more than 1.7 million visitors over the decade. This includes 114,000 students visiting with their schools as well as 86,000 visits through our Welcome Program, which provides low-cost admission to North Carolina and South Carolina families who receive Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) or Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) food and nutrition benefits. The Museum also has hosted thousands of birthday parties and thousands of classes.

“Since we opened, our goal has been to give families a safe place where their children can explore the world, develop new skills and experiment with new ideas,” says Catherine Wilson Horne, Discovery Place President & CEO. “Looking back on the past 10 years, I think we’ve been able to do that quite successfully in Huntersville and we look forward to continuing to serve that community for decades to come.”

Special annual events like Countdown to Kindergarten and New Year’s at Noon have brought thousands of eager kids and their families to the Museum while daily and monthly programming covering topics from health and wellness to STEM careers and opportunities continues to be a major draw.

As we celebrate this milestone, here are some fun facts you might not know about the Museum:

• The iconic fire truck inside Discovery Place Kids-Huntersville is authentic and life-size, which made installing it in the Museum an unusual project. The fire truck had to be driven into the Museum and parked before the building was completed. It was driven into the Museum before the building was finished being constructed.

• The Discovery Place Kids mascot, Can Can, is a physical representation of the spirit of the efforts to create the children’s museum. To this day, the mascot represents the personality of Discovery Place Kids, now in Huntersville as well as Rockingham. Both Discovery Place Kids museums have an overall focus of encouraging children to believe in themselves, evidenced in the exhibitions all being named “I CAN …,” which is how Can Can was named.

• In June 2015, the Museum played a part in breaking the Guinness World Record for the longest hanging soap bubble when entertainer Steve Langley chose Discovery Place Kids-Huntersville as the location for his attempt.

• In mid-2016, Discovery Place Kids-Huntersville welcomed its one-millionth visitor to the Museum.