Courtesy Freedom Boat Club of Lake George
Freedom Boat Club Lake George has partnered with the Children’s Museum at Saratoga on a boating and fishing exhibit.
The “Saratoga Lake—Let’s Go Boating” exhibit is an interactive, kid-friendly, and colorfully immersive exhibit. The exhibit helps young children utilize play to enhance their social and emotional development, as well as learn how to communicate, observe and problem solve with one another as they navigate their way through it, museum officials said.
Freedom Boat Club owners Matt and Rebecca O’Hara have been members of the museum for several years and brought the idea to staff last year.
“We are frequent visitors of the museum with our 5- and 3 year-old daughters. We’ve seen the joy they get interacting with the steering wheels and controls on our club boats, we thought it would be great to enhance the interactivity of the boat exhibit at the museum,” said Rebecca. “We were thrilled when Sarah and her museum team were open to the idea of working with us to add not just the controls to the boat, but significantly upgrading the space with the fishing and knot tying panels.”
The exhibit space is on the first floor of the museum. It offers children an opportunity to take a boat ride fueled by their imagination as they discover different animals and plants in their natural habitat. To further enhance the exhibit’s educational value, there are additional interactives for visitors to engage with as they discover life on the lake.
Included is a revamped rowboat utilizing a reclaimed steering wheel and throttle control, an interactive knot-tying panel featuring four common boating knots, an interactive fishing game, and a life jacket station.
The O’Haras feel that the exhibit, and future programming designed around it, will allow visitors to have more hands-on experience with the joys of boating, the value of boat safety, and the importance of learning about and respecting the eco systems around the region’s lakes.
“We strongly believe that time spent boating as a family is among the best quality time we have with our kids and want to continue making boating more accessible in the area” said Matt O’Hara.
In April, the museum reopened to in-person visitors. Since that time, hundreds of children have visited and interacted with the new boating exhibit, officials. While “driving” the boat itself is a favorite among visitors, the new interactive fishing exhibit is extremely popular with visitors of all ages.
“The changes to this exhibition offer visitors a sneak peek at what lies ahead for the museum’s future. Many of the museum’s best loved exhibitions will be transformed when the museum reopens in its new location in Saratoga State Park” according to Sarah Smith, executive director.
Freedom Boat Club is the nation’s oldest and largest boat club, with over 2,000 boats at 215 club locations operating in 31 states, Canada, and Europe. For more information about Freedom Boat Club in Lake George, call (845) 642-0201 or visit www.freedomboatclub.com.