The Magic House Receives $2.5 Million Grant from Lilly Endowment to Launch Character Development Project Inspired by Brad Meltzer’s Ordinary People Change the World Book Series
ST LOUIS (March 4, 2025) – The Magic House, St. Louis Children’s Museum, is excited to announce it has received a $2.5 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to launch an innovative and groundbreaking five-year project focused on positive character development for children. This project is part of the Fostering Character Through Children’s Museums, a Lilly Endowment initiative designed to help children’s museums develop or expand programs that encourage the development of positive character traits. The Magic House is one of 15 children’s museums around the nation being funded through the initiative.
“Children’s museums are places where children of all ages can learn informally, discovering new ideas through play, multi-sensory experiences and self-expression,” said Ted Maple, Lilly Endowment’s Vice President for Education and Youth Programs. “We are excited to see how the museums funded through this initiative will help children and their families to explore various character traits and reflect together on ways these traits can be practiced and strengthened.”
The Fostering Character project at The Magic House, Hero Quest, will bring to life historical heroes from New York Times best-selling author Brad Meltzer’s Ordinary People Change the World children’s book series. The series was created to provide children with positive role models they can emulate. Through hands-on activities, children will explore the traits that made real-life heroes extraordinary and learn how they themselves can make a difference in the world.
Hero Quest will debut at The Magic House in Fall 2025. A community-wide Hero Quest will launch in Summer 2026 and a nationally travelling exhibit will be available starting in 2027. The Magic House is partnering with CharacterPlus to help create the character education content for the project as well as Maryville University, University of Missouri and Girls, Inc. for evaluation to ensure our project best serves the needs of children and families.
The Magic House’s Fostering Character project will focus on fostering three main character traits – kindness, courage and curiosity.
“We are deeply grateful to Lilly Endowment for this grant, which will enable us to prioritize character development and further our mission to pique curiosity, spark imagination, enhance creativity, and develop problem-solving skills within a place of beauty, wonder, joy and magic to inspire the next generation of heroes,” said Beth Fitzgerald, President of The Magic House.
About The Magic House, St. Louis Children’s Museum
The Magic House is a not-for-profit participatory museum that provides hands-on learning experiences that spark imagination, pique curiosity, enhance creativity and develop problem-solving skills within a place of beauty, wonder, joy, and magic. Serving more than 550,000 visitors annually, The Magic House opened in 1979 and has 55,000 square feet of hands-on exhibits. In 2019, the Museum opened an all-new satellite makerspace in the City of St. Louis on Delmar Boulevard, located between the Central West End and the Delmar Loop.
To stay up-to-date with The Magic House, visit www.magichouse.org and follow the club on Facebook and Instagram.
About Lilly Endowment Inc
Lilly Endowment Inc. is an Indianapolis-based, private foundation created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly and his sons, Eli and J.K. Jr., through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. Although gifts of stock remain the financial bedrock of the Endowment, the Endowment is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff and location. The Endowment supports the causes of community development, education and religion.