PlayMakers Program Provides Low-Cost Access to Families with EBT or WIC Cards
Play helps children learn, imagine and discover – and it helps children heal, helps them connect to others, and helps them learn about themselves and the world around them. Unfortunately, though, for a variety of reasons, not every child has access to safe, purposeful play, and there are members of our community who have never had the chance to visit and benefit from Port Discovery.
As an advocate for children and families in our community, Port Discovery has a role in ensuring all children have access to play and to resources that will help them be better prepared for school and life. And, in order to help do that, Port Discovery is proud to launch a new access program called PlayMakers, which provides low-cost Museum access to Maryland families with EBT or WIC Cards.
PlayMakers will reduce the cost of admission to Port Discovery Children’s Museum to $3 per person for Maryland-based families who present an EBT/Independence Card or WIC ID card. The discounted admission is valid for up to five family members, and is available on any day the Museum is open to the general public.
PlayMakers will help us serve the whole community, creating powerful play and learning experiences for all families. While the PlayMakers program provides families with access to Port Discovery by eliminating cost as a barrier to visiting, the program is intended to encourage all community members to visit and benefit from Port Discovery Children’s Museum, and to create positive change in our community.
To help develop and launch the community access program, Port Discovery Children’s Museum is working with organizations serving low-resource, high-risk populations, including the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Harriet Lane Pediatric Clinic at Johns Hopkins, Centro Sol, Esperanza Center, Urban Strategies, Inc., and The University of Maryland, Baltimore/Promise Heights.
Each partner has worked with Port Discovery to provide community input on the program, to provide orientations to Port Discovery to the families they serve, and to connect families with information and programming that help parents and caregivers learn ways to use play in their homes and everyday lives.
In addition, through the generous support of the Maryland Department of Transportation Maryland Transit Administration (MDOT MTA), Port Discovery Children’s Museum will offer guests visiting via the PlayMakers program a MDOT MTA CharmCard good for unlimited one-day travel to/from the Museum via MDOT MTA Local Bus, Light Rail, and Metro Subway.
To redeem PlayMakers pricing, guests must purchase/reserve tickets for their visit by going to https://tickets.portdiscovery.org/default.aspx and selecting the PlayMakers Admission rate. Guests will present their EBT/Independence or WIC ID card at the Port Discovery Box Office on the day of their visit. More information on the PlayMakers program can be found at www.PortDiscovery.org/PlayMakers.
The PlayMakers program has been made possible by generous funders and donors, including Morgan Stanley. Fundraising for this program is ongoing, and critical to helping Port Discovery continue to offer this important community program for years to come.
Organizations interested in supporting the PlayMaker program as a funder, donor or supporter should contact Emanuel Figueroa, Director of Individual and Community Relations at Port Discovery Children’s Museum, at 410-864-2672 or efigueroa@portdiscovery.org.
