Musco Lighting will pay for tickets to the state’s new Hall of Pride in Des Moines for kids. Jack Lashier is Director of the Hall of Pride, a new interactive museum adjacent to the Hy-Vee Center. Lashier says Joe Crookham, head of Musco Lighting, has been a big supporter of the Hall since its beginning. So they went to him with a proposal — that any schoolchild, from kindergarten through high school, should be able to come see the hall without having to pay to get in. He says the company is thoroughly Iowa-based, even in the wake of news that Musco is expanding.
"They aren’t expanding in Mexico, or other states, they’re expanding in Iowa." Oskaloosa-based Musco has made lighting displays for athletic and recreation fields worldwide since 1976. Lashier says the Hall of Pride, which has lots of sports information and displays about famous Iowans like John Wayne, is already expanding. The hall has added an exhibit of game officials, who he says are vital to running games and making sports available for Iowa kids.
There’s also a new Wellness Exhibit. Lashier says it shows the science of the eye, the heart and lungs, and the muscles and skeletal system. It’s all interactive, so students can check their heart rate, then jog and test what’s happened to their heart, and can see a Lasik eye surgery. He says there are also interactive games…virtual basketball and soccer, in which you can umpire a game, play catch with a companion, and throw a football to a moving wide receive and see just how well you can throw the ball.
Lashier says no other state has done anything like this Hall of Pride. A project with the state high school athletic association, the Hall of Pride honors high-school students in extra-curricular activities including athletics, academics and the arts.