The best part about the Eastern Maine Children’s Museum is not the recent news that it is well ahead of its fund-raising goals but that, 2 1/2 years after the idea was proposed, enthusiasm in the community remains as strong as ever. With a year left before the museum’s scheduled opening, now is the time for residents to help see the project to completion.

Led by the generous and impressive gift of $900,000 by Stephen and Tabitha King, the museum has already met its June 2000 fund-raising goal. The $250,000 contribution by Jay and Hope Benton of Bangor will fund a large exhibit area; and corporate gifts by Bangor Savings Bank, Dead River and Hannaford Bros. have helped push the total over $2 million.

The museum is important to this region because it will be educative, will bring parents and children together in a positive atmosphere and because it looks like a lot of fun. As important, however, it offers vitality to a downtown fighting to renew itself. It is one piece of many that will make Main Street an integral part of the community again. The happy bustle of parents and children shopping at Freese’s during the Christmas season is a fond memory for many in this part of the state. With the exhibit-packed museum filling a substantial portion of the former department store, it will be Christmas any time of year.

The exhibits are designed primarily for children age 12 and under, but just about anyone will be interested in the thoughtfulness of their design. There are Maine-oriented nature trails, water tables and climbable tree towers by the front door; book town displays scenes from the works of well-known Maine authors Robert McCloskey, Barbara Cooney and E.B. White. A great green room, from Margaret Wise Brown’s Good Night, Moon, is set aside especially for very young children as a quiet place. (No word yet on whether the bowl of mush will be available for toddler experimentation.) Elsewhere are interactive spaces for geography, art and music, a walk-through brain and a place to gaze at the heavens.

It all adds up to a wonderful opportunity for the region’s children, but it isn’t paid for yet. The museum will take the next year to raise approximately $1.75 million. A start to the public campaign will take place noon to 3 p.m. Thursday at the Freese’s building. Families are invited to visit the future home for a party and entertainment. It’s a great way to see some of what museum planners have been talking about for so long.

As in any city, good ideas like the Eastern Maine Children’s Museum are easy to come by. Much harder is to organize well enough to rally the community and build support for a specific plan. Harder yet is to turn that plan into something real. The museum project is in that final stage, and needs the region to continue to stand behind it.