HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Cosmosphere has received a grant for $500,000 from the Sunderland Foundation. The grant will be used for the continued revitalization campaign and a new area for young visitors to connect with STEM.

“The success we have seen to date with the revitalization efforts is in large part because of the Sunderlands,” Jim Remar, president of the Cosmosphere, said. “This latest grant really allows us to complete one of our key objectives.”

That objective is an interactive play area for younger visitors. “Kids can learn STEM at an early age, but do it in a meaningful way,” Remar said. The area will be designed for children up to age 7.

The area will include a mini Orion space capsule. Kids will have the ability to build and test paper airplanes in a wind tunnel and launch rockets.

Plans are to begin construction in the fall of this year. The area is expected to open by the spring of 2020.

The Sunderland Foundation was established in 1945 by Lester T. Sunderland, who served as president of the Ash Grove Cement Company for 33 years as a highly-respected leader in the cement industry.