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Great Explorations gets a record gift of $1M

A prominent couple supports the children's museum and issues a matching challenge.

By Mary Jane Park
Published November 23, 2006

ST. PETERSBURG - Longtime community leaders Beth Houghton and Scott Wagman and their family have donated $1-million to Great Explorations, the Children's Museum, the largest single contribution in the organization's 20-year history.

The family also issued a challenge that the gift be matched by Dec. 15, said David Penn, the museum's executive director and chief executive.

Great Ex has $300,000 left to raise within the next three weeks after receiving partial matches from organizations such as the Community Foundation of Tampa Bay and the Southwest Florida Water Management District, better known as Swiftmud, Penn said.

"Any and all gifts up to the remaining $300,000 will be matched," he said. "We have faith in our community that the challenge will be met."

The gift was given in honor of the couple's daughter, Melissa Houghton Wagman.

"Our sons were 5 years old and 6 months old when the museum first raised money to open Great Explorations," Houghton said in a prepared statement. "We were not able to contribute much then. Later, Melissa joined our family and is now 14 years old. All three of our children have grown up with Great Explorations."

The Houghton-Wagman gift allows the museum to complete the Great Splash, a giant water exhibit; to establish an endowment; and to operate debt-free, Penn said.

Additional gifts toward the match can be applied to various programs and areas of the museum, including naming rights.

Penn, who joined Great Ex in the summer of 2005, said attendance at the museum is up 30 percent. It has logged 120,000 visitors so far this year, up 8,000 from all of last year. Its operating budget has increased to $1.4-million, from $700,000 in 2005.

"Our family benefits every day from the generosity of those who came before us," Houghton said. "We believe it our responsibility to add to the community in which we have raised all of our children."

The couple have contributed consistently to Great Ex for the last 20 years, Penn said.

"Scott and I believe that it is more and more difficult to raise children in a busy and frantic world. Great Explorations allows kids to be kids and families to enjoy each other," Houghton said.

In addition to serving on the museum's board, Houghton chairs the boards of the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute and Signature Bank, and is vice president of Houghton-Wagman Enterprises. For 12 years, she was senior vice president, chief financial officer and general counsel of All Children's Hospital.

Wagman was owner and president of Scott Paint Corp. of Sarasota until he sold the company in 1998. Together, they co-founded Scott Therapy Centers of Clearwater. They have been active in numerous community activities, including American Stage and the Arts Center.

[Last modified November 23, 2006, 06:41:53]