$1M gift to boost museum fortunes
Mary Jane ParkPublished November 23, 2006
ST. PETERSBURG - Longtime community leaders Beth Houghton and Scott Wagman and their families have donated $1-million to Great Explorations, the Children's Museum, the largest single contribution in the organization's 20-year history.
The family issued a challenge that the gift be matched by Dec. 15, said David Penn, the museum's executive director and chief executive.
Great Explorations has $300,000 left to raise in the next three weeks after getting partial matches from groups 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.
The gift was given in honor of the couple's daughter, Melissa Houghton Wagman.
"All three of our children have grown up with Great Explorations," Houghton said.
The Houghton-Wagman gift allows the museum to compete in the Great Splash (a giant water exhibit), establish an endowment and operate debt-free, Penn said.
The couple have contributed consistently to Great Explorations 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," Houghton said. "Great Explorations allows kids to be kids and families to enjoy each other."
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.