Renaye Waklatsi, a second-grader at the Milton Hershey School, already knows a lot about her school's founder. She knows Hershey was born on a farm, had a caramel company before going into chocolate and traveled the world with his wife, Kitty. She knows he built the Milton Hershey School to help poor children because "he and Kitty didnt have any children, and Kitty loved children."
Renaye and other visitors to The Hershey Story learned a lot more yesterday, the first day for the new $23.5 million interactive museum celebrating Milton S. Hershey's life and legacy. What they learned, they liked.
"I wondered how he would feel if he were still alive," Renaye said. "I think he would be happy to see all the children here."
Both children and adults said yesterday they were impressed with the new museum, and think it will attract tourists and improve the downtown.
Jennifer Kuhle, a fourth-grade teacher at the Milton Hershey School, called the museum "energizing." She was watching herself on a screen in an exhibit about the school for needy children founded by Hershey in 1909, talking about one of her students who emerged from a poor home situation to become a top academic student and leader among his peers.
Sara Burke, 10, of Palmyra, a student at St. Joan of Arc School in Derry Township, joined her classmates in the Chocolate Lab, where they donned hair nets, aprons and gloves, then tasted cocoa beans from different parts of the world and made their own chocolate confections. Chocolate beans from Africa were a little bitter, Sara said, while Mexican beans were sweet.
"The lab was really fun," she said.
In the Cafe Zooka, which serves sandwiches, salads, and pizza as well as chocolate confections, Paul and Maria Thompson were sipping warm liquid chocolate from six different countries out of shot glasses. He liked the chocolate from Java; she preferred Ecuador.
"We love the museum," Paul Thompson said. "The physical structure is appealing -- open, user friendly, very interactive, and then there is the story itself. "