Renderings of  pavilion planned for Railway and Forestry Museum – images courtesy Railway  and Forestry Museum

Prince George, B.C.- The Railway and Forestry Museum in Prince George is on track in its fundraising efforts to make the museum accessible for all visitors.

The plan calls for a platform that is wheel chair accessible.”We strongly believe that museums are great for education purposes and life is measured by memories” says Museum Executive Director Ranjit Gill.

She says it’s important for everyone to have access to the facility “We really want seniors to come because it piques their interest, they remember pieces of equipment and they just love coming here, and we wanted to make sure the rest of the museum is accessible” . She says a lot of families are attracted to the museum because of their family connections with CN Rail in this region.

Ramps have been built and all the pathways have been paved, but the railcars are still not accessible.

Gill says the plan calls for the railcars to be covered, giving them extra protection from the elements, and a ramp in between the cars so visitors are at train entry level.

While there have been donations of materials, she says they need more dollars “We need some financial donations to cover labour and the rental of machinery. This is not my project, it’s a project for the community and we want to make sure that it thrives and we protect the community’s assets.”

The campaign has reached the half way mark but Gill says there is a need for about $200 thousand dollars more “We are continuously going out to the community and looking for funding and applying for grants, we made a commitment to our members that we will not borrow money to do this, We will do it in stages if we don’t have enough money.”