RTP Estuary Center Opens The Kelsey Family Children’s Innovation & Discovery Center

Old Lyme July 17, 2024 — Connecticut Audubon’s Roger Tory Peterson Estuary Center is excited to announce the opening of a new children’s education center on its 5-acre property in Old Lyme. Funded by private donations, The Kelsey Family Children’s Innovation & Discovery Center is located in a renovated and expanded 1,632-square-foot cottage.

The center, which officially opened on July 3, will be the home of an array of new, specially-designed programs for children ages 3-10. Program participants will have the opportunity to learn about conservation and the environment through stories and art, the use of scientific equipment, and explorations of local habitats. The newly renovated building includes classrooms, a studio and lab equipped with digital microscopes and other scientific equipment, an organic vegetable garden, and water and nature play areas.

“The Kelsey family is fortunate to be able to support such a worthy endeavor of the Roger Tory Peterson Estuary Center,” said J. David Kelsey of Old Lyme.  “The commitment of the center to the nature education and growth of intellectual curiosity in our young kids is critical to the establishment of lifelong learning and coupling that with an introduction to conservation and an important understanding of the contributions of birds to our world is a wonderful thing of which to be a part.”