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Wonder Works is a Hands On Business
The first thing most parents say to their children when they walk in the door at Wonder Works is, "Don't touch anything."
Immediately, co-owner Christine Osborne will run over and say, "It's OK. They can touch everything here. This is a hands-on store."
She'll smile widely, offer her hand to the children and lead them over to the giant bubble machine near the door or back into a corner where there are dinosaur models and wild animal toys of every description.
Wonder Works, at Northcutt Plaza, 280 W. Coleman Blvd., Mount Pleasant, is an unusual toy and gift store that Mrs. Osborne and co-owner Dan Morrisey opened Aug 10. Children (and adults) who visit the store have their sense of wonder piqued by the more than 15,000 items on display.
That's the idea.
You won't find Mutant Ninja Turtle toys, Dick Tracy decoder rings, Bart Simpson sweatshirts or mind-numbing Nintendo games at Wonder Works. And you won't need to buy batteries on your way out, either.
"Well, we do have just one thing that takes batteries," Morrisey sheepishly admits. "It's a yo-yo that lights up. That's what happens when you buy almost every kind of yo-yo there is."
In addition to yo-yos, the store has spinning tops, gyroscopes, microscopes, magnets, wooden puzzles, ant farms, paper airplanes, binoculars, crystal radio kits, rocks and minerals, bubble wands, space crystals, volcano kits, prisms, tornado tubes, plush dinosaurs, fish pillows, kites, frog tanks, butterfly nets and more.
"Once adults get into these things with their children, they can begin to let the child within themselves come out," says Morrisey. "That's what we're hoping for."
While the trend in toys is toward products that babysit, Mrs. Osborne and Morrisey have filled their store with toys that get kids and parents talking to each other.
"We've made a conscious effort to select items that are interactive," Morrisey says. "Take these yo-yos. We've found that with yo-yos, Dad usually ends up showing the kids the tricks he used to do when he was a boy, like walking the dog, or rocking it in the cradle."
Curiosity and playfulness are encouraged at the store. A magnet table is set up in one corner where children play with buckets of magnets. And an "I Wonder Box" is situated near the entrance.
Children write out questions about nature and science on post cards and put them in the I Wonder Box. The store returns the answers by mail.
Every Saturday morning, the store offers Wonder Workshops, 45-minute seminars on science topics such as op- tics, reptiles, physics, astronomy and energy.
"They are designed to introduce scientific principles to young children,” Morrisey says. Workshops cost $7.50
Running a toy store is quite a switch for Morrisey and Mrs. Osborne. Both worked at Southern Pines Hospital from 1981 until early this year, when Charter Corp. bought the private psychiatric hospital.
Morrisey, 46, moved to Charleston in 1981 to help open the hospital. He was named hospital administrator in 1984, a post he held until the hospital was sold.
"When my corporation sold the hospital, I was out of a job,” says Morrisey, a former elementary school teacher and college professor who holds a doctorate in education from the University of Virginia.
"I looked at everything from going into another hospital to returning to teaching, but I wanted to get into a business of my own. I thought of laundromats, day-care centers and other ideas, then we came up with this idea."
Mrs. Osborne, 32, began at Southern Pines as an occupational therapist and was promoted to the post of marketing director in 1985. A pioneer in marketing psychiatric services, she developed a network of sales people who called on, psychiatrists, and other referral sources, which led to increased admissions and higher profits for Southern Pines ownership.
She stayed on with Charter Corp. for a while after the sale, but her heart was no longer in the work. "I went home and told my husband, 'My creativity's gone. I can't do it again for another company.'"
Mrs. Osborne and Morrisey, both married with children, decided to open a different kind of toy store, one that promoted learning.
They traveled to museum stores in Charlotte and Washington, noting the kinds of items sold and how those items were displayed. They conducted a 90-day demographics and marketing survey before deciding on the Mount Pleasant location.
Dr. Dan courageously battled pancreatic cancer in 2007. He will forever be a part of Wonder Works.
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