Gull Wings helps young minds take flight

HANDS ON ACTIVITY—Melissa Baffa, executive director of the Ventura County Gull Wings Children’s Museum in Oxnard, shows off two of the sea creatures in the museum’s Touch Tank. Free admission is offered this month to anyone who donates to the museum’s school supply drive. Only 3 years old, Jack Baffa has already developed an appreciation for museums. Well, maybe not the Getty Museum just yet, but at least the kind for kids.

“Jack talks about going to the museum all the time,” said his mother, Melissa Baffa, 35, the executive director of the Ventura County Gull Wings Children’s Museum in Oxnard.

Baffa, a Simi Valley resident, left her job as a science teacher at Sinaloa Junior High School to stay home with her son when he was born. When she decided to return to work an opportunity at Gull Wings opened up.

“I wanted to take on a part-time job and thought about what I’d like to do,” Baffa said. “I always wanted to work in a museum.”

Gull Wings Children’s Museum is the vision of local educators, parents and grandparents who wanted a place for children to learn by means of tactile, handson experiences. The nonprofit opened in May 1989 and relies on donations and museum sales to stay in operation.

Kids can play in boats set in a marine area or they can visit a replica rain forest. There’s a space exhibit with a mockup of a space station and a medical ambulance area with a fire truck. Baffa, who studied marine biology at Cal Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, said her favorite exhibit at the museum is a tide pool with live aquatic animals.

Visiting school groups, moms’ play groups, Scout troops, and parents just spending the day with their kids can discover their own favorites.

Lorraine Villarreal has been a volunteer at the museum for six years and now serves as board president.

“We’re looking for exhibits on the environment right now. Anything that we can do to get the kids excited about the future, we’ll do it,” said the Camarillo resident and computer teacher at Walnut Canyon Elementary School in Moorpark.

This month, Gull Wings is offering free admission to anyone who donates to the museum’s school supply drive. A list of supplies is at www.gullwings.org.

The donated items will benefit low-income students at Driffill Elementary School in Oxnard.

“When I came on board, I came in with the philosophy that it’s important to give back to the community,” Baffa said. “When I was a teacher at Sinaloa, we had a great administration that regularly ran various community programs. That sort of giving really inspired me.”

The 5,000squarefoot museum features interactive exhibits for children ages 2 to12. It is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

The admission price is $4, free for children 2 and under.

In addition to the exhibits, the museum offers story time, craft programs and birthday party packages.