{"id":5110,"date":"2026-07-21T22:09:26","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T22:09:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5110"},"modified":"2026-07-21T22:09:26","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T22:09:26","slug":"special-olympics-has-a-special-night-at-childrens-discovery-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5110","title":{"rendered":"Special Olympics has a special night at Children’s Discovery Museum"},"content":{"rendered":"
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For more than three decades, San Jose\u2019s Children\u2019s Discovery Museum has built its reputation on creating a place where all kids can learn through play. That mission lines up with the Special Olympics of Northern California, which received the museum\u2019s Legacy for Children Award at its Keep On Playing gala last Saturday night.<\/p>\n

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Andrea Cahn , who accepted the sundial award on behalf of the organization, is senior vice president of Special Olympics Unified Champion Schools, a program that aims for social inclusion through planned activities at more than 10,000 schools in the United States, including more than a dozen in San Jose and Santa Clara County.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpecial Olympics approaches this vision through sports and through our schools\u2019 programming. The museum approaches it through hands-on learning, through family engagement and discovery. The methods might differ, but the destination is beautifully aligned,\u201d Chan said. \u201cWe\u2019re all about a future where inclusion is expected, rather than exceptional.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than 200 people attended the event at the Purple Museum in downtown San Jose, which included a fun improv performance by Freestyle+ and a couple of special moments for the institution. The gala served as an introduction for new Children\u2019s Discovery Museum CEO Linda Tsai, who has been on the job four months, but it was also a farewell for Debbie McKenzie, CDM\u2019s associate director of development who has been part of all 26 of the Legacy for Children Award events.<\/p>\n

Tsai and board chair Monica Nayar of PwC presented McKenzie with a floral bouquet and elicited a promise that she would come back after retirement \u2014 as a guest.<\/p>\n

LAKE CUNNINGHAM IS BACK:<\/strong> Families around San Jose were disappointed by the news that the Calibunga water park at Lake Cunningham Park in San Jose was kaput for the summer. But the venue won\u2019t be dead for the whole season thanks to the launch of Fridays at the Lake, a weekly series of free family-friendly events running through Oct. 2.<\/p>\n

Read more SF Giants\u2019 Trevor McDonald lands on injured list with right elbow strain<\/a><\/p>\n

San Francisco\u2019s Circus Bella will kick things off this week and immediately confuse the marketing by having two days of fun: Thursday and<\/em> Friday. The open-air circus \u2014 which features acrobats, aerialists, jugglers, clowns and a six-piece band \u2014 will start seating at 5:30 p.m. both days at the park\u2019s Cypress Pavilion. Families can bring picnic dinners, small chairs or blankets and there will be food trucks and a pop-up beer garden.<\/p>\n

Skating and live music by La Maltida Cruda and Monkey will be offered at the park\u2019s revived skate park on July 3. There also will be wrestling \u2014 both live with Pro Wrestling Revolution and on screen with the movie \u201cNacho Libre\u201d \u2014 on Aug. 31. More movies, music and other activities will follow, and you can keep track of them all at the \u201cFridays at the Lake\u201d collection on Eventbrite.<\/p>\n

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ART AND ABOUT:<\/strong> We don\u2019t usually rave about people painting on overpasses, but in this case, John Barrick \u2014 aka Honest John \u2014 deserves a big round of applause for his new mural on the Highway 87 overpass above eastbound West Santa Clara Street. The mural spells out, \u201cWelcome to Downtown San Jose\u201d in painted block letters that match the city\u2019s official colors of white, blue and gold. It is just the kind of fun, placemaking symbol that downtown \u2014 and the city as a whole \u2014 could use more of.<\/p>\n

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about San Jose arts organization Local Color preparing to move into its new creative hub in the Davidson Building on West Julian Street. Erin Salazar, Carman Gaines and their team are ready to welcome people over for a housewarming, with a first look and 11th birthday celebration for Local Color planned from 3 to 7 p.m. this Saturday. There\u2019ll be workshop, music and birthday cake, and you can keep on top of the updates on the group\u2019s plans on its Instagram page.<\/p>\n

Read more Trump removal from FIFA World Cup photo called into question<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The organization’s Northern California chapter received the Legacy for Children Award at San Jose learning center’s annual gala.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5109,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news"],"yoast_head":"\nSpecial Olympics has a special night at Children’s Discovery Museum - Next City Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5110\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Special Olympics has a special night at Children’s Discovery Museum - Next City Digest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The organization's Northern California chapter received the Legacy for Children Award at San Jose learning center's annual gala.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5110\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Next City Digest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-21T22:09:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=5110#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=5110\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/13065d40d633843429ac57d4e5c06f9b\"},\"headline\":\"Special Olympics has a special night at Children’s Discovery Museum\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-21T22:09:26+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=5110\"},\"wordCount\":695,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=5110#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/3790d6cca611ec91230caf6367203c66.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Local News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=5110#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=5110\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=5110\",\"name\":\"Special Olympics has a special night at Children’s Discovery Museum - 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