The Bloomsburg Children’s Museum has created a pop-up exhibit for the McBride Library that promotes healthy habits for good mental health and teaches visitors how their brains work. The temporary exhibit reflects a small part of the Museum’s new health and nutrition exhibit titled “The Superpower of You,” slated to open July 23rd.

Ginny Weibel, Director of the Bloomsburg Children’s Museum said the pop-up exhibit pays homage to the museum’s past. “Thirty-six years ago, the museum actually started as a traveling organization. We moved around to different locations putting up temporary exhibits in schools and community centers for limited engagements,” said Weibel.

Weibel explained the choice of topic for the pop-up exhibit. “The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted a need in our community to better understand stress, anxiety, and depression, particularly in children and teens. We want people to have the knowledge and tools to take charge of their health and work towards developing healthy habits that strengthen both body and mind,” Weibel said.

In the exhibit, visitors will learn about how the brain functions, how your senses work, tackle some brain games, and learn what you can do to take charge of your brain’s health.

Christine Curley, Director of the McBride Memorial Library emphasized this point. “Mental health plays a key role in our overall health. A child’s mental well-being is just as important as their physical well-being and deserves the same quality of support. We are very grateful for our partnership with the Children’s Museum in bringing this exhibit to our patrons, which not only gives our patrons a chance to learn more about mental health and how the brain works but also helps to connect them to valuable mental health resources.”

Some of the resources available within the exhibit were provided by the United Way of Columbia and Montour Counties, United in Recovery. Olivia Oden, Stigma Reduction & Education Coordinator for United in Recovery, emphasized the importance of this message. “Providing evidence-based education for youth and families is a key part of prevention when talking about addiction. Substance use disorder is prevalent in many families within our community; learning about the disease from a scientific and biological approach is a great way to teach that it can happen to anyone, and how we can help our kids make healthy, positive choices,” Oden said.

The exhibit was sponsored by Berwick Youth In Philanthropy, The Community Giving Foundation, and T-Mobile. You can visit the exhibit at the McBride Memorial Library from now until September 30th.

For information on programs and operating hours of the McBride Memorial Library, please visit https://mcbridelibrary.org

For more information on the Bloomsburg Children’s Museum, please visit https://the-childrens-museum.org/