Please Touch Needs Millions to Survive

A dip in donations and rising debt payments has a Philadelphia children's museum in a pinch two years after it opened an ornate new home.

The Please Touch Museum opened an expansive facility inside a building left over from the 1876 Centennial Exposition about two years ago. But debt payments for the new building are rising while
the museum's fundraising effort is about $21 million short of expectations.

Museum president and chief executive officer Laura Foster tells The Philadelphia Inquirer that officials are seeking "major gifts" to help secure the museum's future. The museum wants to raise $30 million to make future debt payments and build a reserve fund.

The Please Touch Museum moved to Memorial Hall in Fairmount Park in October 2008 after years in a cramped building downtown.