HOW TO TURN 3 MONTHS INTO 20 YEARS: The

HOW TO TURN 3 MONTHS INTO 20 YEARS

Kid Time Director Sunny Spicer still navigating the ebbs and flows of changing needs

By Buffy Pollock for the Mail Tribune

Sunny Spicer, director of Kid Time Children’s Museum in Medford, never envisioned herself as a champion for early childhood development.

By the time she was recruited in 2002 to “help out for three months,” Kid Time had existed since establishing nonprofit status in 1998.

With a background in campaigning and nonprofits, the Oregon native planned to follow in the lawyerly footsteps of her dad. Hired to help with grant writing and to organize events to rally community support for a discovery museum, Spicer had no idea she would see the effort through to fruition — much less be the virtual “glue” of the organization nearly two decades later.

“I like to joke that this has been the longest three months of my life,” Spicer said.

“I was going to jump in and then leave. I didn’t know anything about children’s museums at the time, so I set out to learn more and realized how much of a need there was for this place that was being dreamed up. It was so important.”

Kid Time, which closed March 13, in response to the novel coronavirus, also committed to helping families

Sunny Spicer walks through a new kindergarten space at the new Kid Time location in downtown Medford.

Kid Time, which closed March 13, in response to the novel coronavirus, also committed to helping families that are sheltering at home with the “Kid Time: Home Edition” initiative, a program that includes videos and activities to keep kids engaged at home.

that are sheltering at home with the “Kid Time: Home Edition” initiative, a program that includes videos and activities to keep kids engaged at home.

“This past year has brought us so many trials and tribulations. Challenges we never thought we would face. Yet through it all, the kids still bring so much love and enthusiasm to all that they do,” Spicer said. “Their resilience, their compassion for each other, their ability to look past the things that don’t matter will be one of the driving forces that inspire me and so many of us through the next phase of Kid Time’s evolution.”

Imaginative activity, dubbed “free-play” by scientists, is a vital component in proper brain development, Spicer explained, actually changing the way the brain is wired.

“It’s long been proven that kids who engage in free-play build a foundation for success not only in school but,

ANDY ATKINSON / MAIL TRIBUNE

ultimately, for their entire life,” she said.

“So we built something that was definitely nontraditional by way of children’s museums, but also that would fit our Rogue Valley.”

Founded by a board of directors in the late 1990s, Kid Time supporters rallied for four years to create an operations plan and establish community partnerships.

When it was time to hit the road and share Kid Time with future patrons, Spicer contributed everything from vision and manual labor.

While the Kid Time Children’s Museum in Medford has been closed during the pandemic, it has scheduled several events for kids to enjoy at home ... such as a virtual Polar Express Adventure, complete with “elf-made” gift bags, which was held in the days before Christmas.

“In 2003, my husband and fatherin-law built some exhibit samples that would fit in my mini van. I would take them to community events and other locations throughout the region, meeting people, showing them what a children’s museum could be for their children,” she recalled.

“By 2005, we secured the former Moose Lodge (on Ross Lane and McAndrews). Over the course of six weeks, my husband and I, some volunteers, and our board members turned a nonprofit bar into the first version of Kid Time. ... Our plan was to open for three months, then close to launch a big capital campaign for permanent exhibits. The demand to stay open was huge — so we kept going.”

Kid Time would evolve, moving into a vacant portion of the SOHS History Center in 2011, adding some muchloved exhibits from the former museum space. Learning Loft preschool — now ranked among the top preschools in the state — launched with 12 part-time students in 2014, expanding over the past half-dozen years to include satellite locations at elementary schools throughout Southern Oregon.

Ever-changing, the latest evolution of Kid Time is 20 years in the making, with a regional play facility and preschool offerings. Despite changes to operating hours and other services brought on by the pandemic, Kid Time most recently, thanks to a 50-year, $1-per-year lease by the city of Medford, moved into the historic Carnegie Building.

“Kid Time has shown me that a group of kids who have never met, from diverse backgrounds, who may not even speak the same languages, can become best friends, can build a fort, create beautiful art, or even run a business of their own creation — in just a few hours, through the power of play.”

Sunny Spicer, director, Kid Time Children’s Museum

A capital campaign launched in 2019, coupled with a $2 million grant from the Legislature this summer, is allowing for continued renovations and expansion. Kid Time founding board member Andy Batzer credited Spicer’s unwavering passion for Kid Time with its ongoing success.

“The whole key in work and in life is to be passionate about what you’re doing and being committed to make that decision that you’re going to do something ... and do it the right way. And that’s Sunny,” Batzer said.

“She has been a driving force, and she has brought together an incredible staff of like-minded people and board members that believe in the same vision. That’s what attracted me to want to be involved. If we are going to look at the problems we’re facing as a society — every problem that we have is somehow tied to early childhood development and developmental trauma — then we need to start as early as we can.”

Longtime supporter and former teacher Melissa Alexander said Spicer was the lifeblood of Kid Time.

“Sunny has made it her life’s work to create a safe, engaging and family-friendly place in the Rogue Valley. She has kept Kid Time operating through some extremely trying circumstances where other people in similar circumstances might have given up,” Alexander said.

“She, seemingly magically, continues to find resources and people to not only continue on with her original vision but to create even better programs, ideas, activities and exhibits to benefit the community. She’s now working on her third physical location of Kid Time, and each building and the operations within become more amazing than the last.”

Not one for accolades, Spicer credits her staff, volunteers and community support for the success of Kid Time. While she admittedly stuck around longer than “three months to help out,” she’s happy to hold on for the ride.

At the end of the day, the simplest interactions and opportunities for the youngest community members, she said, are at the heart of everything she and others will continue to strive for.

“Kid Time has shown me that a group of kids who have never met, from diverse backgrounds, who may not even speak the same languages, can become best friends, can build a fort, create beautiful art, or even run a business of their own creation — in just a few hours, through the power of play,” she added.