The University of Nebraska State Museum-Morrill Hall recently partnered with Lighthouse, a Lincoln-based after-school program, to provide 182 free museum passes as part of a spring membership drive.

For every membership purchased or renewed, Morrill Hall donated two free passes to Lighthouse. Museum members and visitors also had the option to purchase additional passes for donation.

“Providing education opportunities is a core part of our museum mission,” said Susan Weller, director of the NU State Museum. “We enjoyed partnering with Lighthouse because education is an important component of their mission, as well.”

Lighthouse’s mission is to promote the mental, physical, emotional and spiritual well-being of adolescents, with a goal of improving graduation rates for middle and high school-aged youth. It aims to build and nurture each adolescent’s self-esteem, empowering them to believe in themselves and others and encouraging them to celebrate life to the fullest.

“The passes to the museum will be extremely beneficial to the students we serve at Lighthouse,” said Kerry Dawson, Lighthouse program director. “We do our best to provide opportunities for our youth that they may not get the chance to experience otherwise. We love taking field trips to museums and exploring different activities here in Lincoln. Access to Morrill Hall will allow us to provide learning opportunities and programming to our youth in an engaging and fun way throughout the year.”

Lighthouse is the sixth local organization to receive passes as part of the NU State Museum’s membership program. People’s City Mission, Friendship Home, CEDARS, the Malone Community Center and F Street Community Center received passes as part of the museum’s previous membership drives. The museum plans to support other Lincoln-based community organizations with future membership drives.

“We hope visiting our museum will stimulate these students’ curiosity and encourage them to keep learning,” Weller said.