Stormont Vail Health and the Kansas Children’s Discovery Center partner to provide childcare for frontline health care workers

Stormont Vail Health and the Kansas Children's Discovery Center are proud to announce a new partnership to get children back into the museum building, which has been closed since March. Stormont Vail will rent the building on weekdays beginning this Thursday, October 8 to provide no-cost childcare to Stormont Vail team members. The outdoor area of the museum, which opened in July, remains open to the public for timed, ticketed entry seven days a week. 

This partnership gets children in the building again, joyfully playing, learning, and having fun,” said Dene’ Mosier, president/CEO, Discovery Center. “As health care workers care for us, we will provide the perfect place for their children by providing a safe and enriching place for playful learning. In this building, every experience is designed to help young learners thrive. While we continue to work towards reopening our indoor space safely to the public, we are excited Stormont Vail can offer this safe experience for a consistent group of children of their staff.” 

“Thank you to the Kansas Children’s Discovery Center for stepping up during these times to provide some peace of mind to our team members,” said Darlene Stone, senior vice president and chief experience officer, Stormont Vail Health. “Partnerships like these allow our team members to focus on providing high-quality care to the patients and communities we serve while their child is cared for in a safe and secure environment.” 

The nonprofit children’s museum is privately funded and relies primarily on admissions and other earned income to operate 15,000 square feet of indoor science, art and play exhibits and a 4.5 acre outdoor adventure area. During the pandemic, the Discovery Center has struggled to redesign indoor exhibits experiences in such a way that children from the public can visit safely in large enough numbers to cover operation costs. The museum's outdoor area will remain open and visitors from the public will never come in contact with children enrolled in the child care program. This arrangement is temporary, and the museum is still actively working towards returning to full operation.

The program will be staffed by Stormont Vail. Stormont Vail employs over 5,300 team members

and is actively seeking to add new team members to join the team. Career opportunities can be

found on the Stormont Vail website at https://www.stormontvail.org/career-opportunities/.