The Executive Director of an area children’s museum is reflecting on an award-winning year.
Above and Beyond Children’s Museum in Sheboygan was recently named the 2026 Tourism Gem by the Sheboygan County Chamber of Commerce at their annual awards gala.
In the weeks since, Above and Beyond Executive Director Cate Tinker has reflected on just what earned her and her colleagues such a distinction.
“It was such an incredible evening and I’m so thankful to the chamber and to this community for all of the work over the last two years that we’ve been doing,” said Tinker. “We’ve really been in transformation mode and being nominated and then being awarded as the tourism gem of the Year felt like such an incredible cherry on top of an incredible year.”
Tinker also gave us a breakdown of the numbers that fueled the Children’s Museum to be named the Tourism Gem and the impact they’ve had.
She explained, “In total, we estimate approximately $1.4 million in tourism revenue generated back into Sheboygan County from visitation here. We serve between 30,000 to 35,000 people in terms of onsite visitation, and an additional 30,000 people in our outreach experiences out in the community.”
Those numbers were also achieved with a common goal in mind.
She noted, “Our goal is always that mission-based play and to create a community in Sheboygan and beyond, pun intended, that is more child and family friendly.”
However, Tinker was also quick to shout out and recognize the others involved in making the past year such a success at Above and Beyond.
“One of the big things that we focused on this year was community collaboration,” Tinker told us. “So, to say that we earned this award, I think we earned this award in partnership with so many community members, local corporations, donors, member families that really stepped up to support what we were doing and wanted to be a part of that.”
With such major changes taking place in recent months, Tinker and everyone at the Children’s Museum were extremely honored to be recognized for the impact they’ve had in the community.
But the Executive Director also tells us the work is never really finished, and she looks forward to what will be coming in the future.
Next week, we will take a deeper dive into changes coming to the museum and new exhibits and programs that guests will be able to enjoy in the coming months.
