The Museum in the Park is gearing up for a very active spring.

A host of projects, presentations and celebrations will be coming to the museum soon, said Site Manager Elizabeth Williams recently.

Williams noted that children's crafts and arts programs held on Saturdays continue to be popular and are a big part of the museum's community outreach.

"Kids have a lot of fun," Williams told members of the Lions Club of Logan, where she was special guest speaker. Williams said the museum does a lot of events and has something to offer anyone, including music programs, arts and crafts and history projects. Williams brought examples of crafts made by youngsters including corn husk dolls and bead necklaces.

Children's crafts programs are held on Saturday mornings and Williams said she is looking for volunteers to put together traditional Appalachian crafts classes for adults as well as taking some programs out of the museum and into the school system.

"With budget cuts, many schools no longer do field trips, so I would like to take the museum experience to the schools," she explained.

March is National Youth Art Month and Williams purchased every disposable camera she could get at the local Walmart and distributed them to local school kids and asked them to take photographs of the park. Their pictures will be the centerpiece of a youth art display.

One plan Williams wants to bring to the museum is a hand blown glass exhibit, and she is looking for a glass blower to be a part of it.

"We will also have our music festival and other events," she said. "But we will be doing some different things this year too," she said discussing a radio-astronomy program for late summer or fall. "We will be doing something every month from here on out," she added.

Williams said visitors from out of town often come to the museum on weekends and seem to enjoy it. Events like the Aunt Jennie Wilson festival bring in enormous amounts of visitors and Williams needs volunteers to work as tour guides as well.

"We are actively seeking volunteers," she said. "Over 900 people visited the museum during the Aunt Jennie festival last year. Volunteers are important."

This year's Museum in the Park schedule includes:

• March 1-31 Youth Art Month. Through a Child's Eyes photo display.

• April 24-25 Living in the Wild displays of flora and fauna.

• June 20-21 West Virginia Day Historic Encampment.

• June 26-27 Melungeon Heritage Association Union.

• July 18-19 Train Days Celebration.

• Sept. 5-6 Aunt Jennie's Music Festival

• Sept. 19 National Radio Astronomy Observatory at Green Bank.

• Oct. 7-11 Shawnee Trail Living History Encampment.

• Nov. 7-8 Frontier Days Historic Encampment.

• Nov. 20-Jan. 3. Christmas Tree display.

• Dec. 5-12 Christmas Programs.

In other Lions news:

• Members celebrated Bev Roark's birthday.

• Odis Ratcliff said the Salvation Army of Logan would be having its annual dinner on March 15 at 2 p.m. at Chapmanville Middle School to thank volunteers who helped out with the Christmas Kettle Drive. At the dinner, the winner of the annual competition to see which group raised the most funding will be announced. Call 752-4936 for details or reservations.