We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Lisa Campos a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Lisa, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

Have you ever taken small children that do not know how to swim to a pool? Keeping an eye on everyone to ensure nobody is at risk of drowning can be very stressful. The modern-day solution is a splash pad, a series water features that are activated by the press of a button, which lets loose water through the fountains to the delight of visitors young and old. Investigation Station’s Water Cycle Splash Pad, located at the Veterans Memorial Park in Hudson, Florida, is the most meaningful project I worked on.
As a completely volunteer-run nonprofit organization, Investigation Station raised funds and formed partnerships with local businesses and the Rotary Club for eight years in order to create a fenced in, zero-water depth, splash pad with water features resembling the various parts of the water cycle with a mural reflecting the natural Florida environment on the building wall facing it. It was very important that it be placed where children may not have access to personal swimming pools or the funds for swimming lessons in order to be safe around bodies of water. People of all ages, regardless of ability to swim enjoy the splash pad, especially the large dump bucket that fills up every couple of minutes to dump gallons of water on the eagerly waiting children below.
The Water Cycle Splash Pad was donated to the Pasco County Board of County Commissioners, Department of Parks and Recreation, Veterans Memorial Park, in May of 2021. This area is surrounded by 4 elementary schools, at which the free and reduced lunch figures were 78-85% of each student population.
The commercial pool contractor estimated the project to cost $300,000, but was willing to work with our community partners, so more than half was covered by in-kind donations.
Now children and those with special needs can safely be active outside, even in the hottest months of the year, by going to the splash pad and playing in the water, without risk of drowning.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Lisa Campos. I have been living in Pasco County, Florida for almost 25 years. When I first moved here, I was disappointed at how far away and how expensive the children’s museums were. I had graduated with a MA in anthropology from the Florida State University and hoped to work in a museum. Instead, I took my experience and researched how to start a children’s museum. I met a lawyer who helped me apply for 501(c)(3) certification from the IRS and began bringing mini exhibits to mommy and me groups. Soon, I met some other people who were interested in my little children’s museum and together we created numerous exhibits to bring to pre-schools and elementary schools. We were like a field trip that came to the school and charged very little, simply to cover expenses. Eventually it was apparent to us that the requirements of the State truly limited the ability of the teachers to have us come to them. So we pivoted and began devoting all our time and resources to creating permanent, public exhibits for children and their caregivers to experience for free, as their schedules permit. We are the only completely volunteer-run, nonprofit organization in this region of Florida (and perhaps the entire state) that creates interactive exhibits for the community.
We currently have three completed exhibits. The first exhibit we opened was “From the Sun to Pluto,” in Starkey Wilderness Park. It is a one-mile scaled model of the solar system featuring digital artwork of all the solar bodies in our solar system, plus fun facts from NASA about each one. There are also formulas for each to calculate one’s weight and age on each solar body.
The second completed exhibit was Kidstruction, a mobile STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) at the request of the Pasco County Library System. It consists of hundreds of Keva planks (similar to Jenga blocks), a set of construction ideas, a wrecking ball and a catapult for children to build, destroy and build again.
The third exhibit was built in the Veterans Memorial Park. It is the Water Cycle Splash Pad, which consists of fountains and water features modeled after the various phases of the water cycle. A mural showing precipitation, collection, condensation and evaporation in a natural Florida environment. Children of all ages delight in the cool water, as they remain active even during our very hot and long Florida summer.
Currently, we are working on creating a geology of Florida exhibit. This is a project requested by the City of New Port Richey. It will consist of 12 stations, reflecting various periods of geologic time through art and engineering, to demonstrate how Florida came to be where and how it is.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

We were holding a fundraiser for our $300,000 splash pad project. The fundraiser was a relay race and we were having a really hard time getting teams to sign up. We offered all kinds of incentives to potential sponsors. We tried to get businesses to challenge one another to get interest. Students wanted to participate, but did not have the funds to do it. So we finally decided to have businesses donate so that students and families could participate for FREE! Every $100 a business donated enabled 4 students or a family of 4 to participate at no cost to themselves. This worked!! Lots of businesses felt good giving us money so that others could compete in the race.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Investigation Station is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to create permanent, interactive exhibits for children and their caregivers to experience for free, on their own time, in Pasco County, Florida. Having been a low-income mother, with three small children, but desiring that they value learning outside of the classroom, I made it my mission to solve this problem by creating a nonprofit organization and bringing the opportunity to everyone.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.investigationstation.org
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/InvestigationStation