Our Mission

We strive to facilitate learning through time spent in awe and wonder, and to inspire people to investigate the many facets of the world around them.

Memberships

From a quick visit to enjoy the cafe area and free wifi, to meandering through the gift shop, to a full day of interacting with the exhibits, there are many options available to satisfy different commitments and budgets.

Find Out More

Volunteering

Can you start a conversation with anyone? Do you like to take little ideas and guide ways to make them come true? Do you like to create and build? We would love it if you would help us aim high for our community!

Get plugged in today!

What we’re about

COGnition is museum style center, full of interactive exhibits that offer hands-on learning opportunities, while being fun and interesting for kids of all ages. This is a place where families can come make memories, generations can connect over shared discoveries and experience, and our youth can see horizons of interest and possibility open before them. May the community be empowered, guests be enlightened, and minds of all ages be challenged and inspired! It may be a small start, but this is just the beginning!

Bringing Interactive Discovery and Innovative Inspiration to Northern Michigan

COGNiTiON Founders and Board

Kimmee Wenkel

Executive Director and Co-founder
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More About Kimmee

Kimberlee has a BA in Family Life Education, college and post graduate experience in fine art, over five years working for a Nonprofit, five years of experience managing volunteers, and the life experience of being the mother of four elementary school age children living in Beulah. Her career includes eight years of child education experience through helping with junior and senior high youth groups and teaching elementary grades at Bay Point Community Church. Through this volunteer involvement and Children’s Ministry position and she has gleaned from the experiences of speaking and organizing for large groups, programing small group activities, leading a team of volunteers, retreat and day camp involvement, and being an integral part of hands-on learning. Kimberlee has also gained invaluable experience and perspective from multiple human service missions within the states as well as two international projects. She is currently involved in the community as a coach for 4-H youth soccer (4 yrs.) and has coached Odyssey of the Mind for the past two years and maintains a level of adventure as she and her husband have a small backyard farm and love to camp, hike, and spend long days roaming the local beaches.

Laura Stanwick

Assistant Executive Director and Co-Founder

More About Laura

Laura’s career, through her BS in Occupational Therapy (using hands-on activities to facilitate and enhance function) brings multiple job experiences; from working in a private psychiatric facility and school-based POHI program, to multiple years working with Developmentally Disabled school-age and adult populations. She served on the Michigan Occupational Therapy Board of Management for many years and Chaired District OT organizations in the North Metro Detroit area and then in Northwestern Lower Michigan. Later, her career took a dramatic shift to hospital-based outpatient Hand Therapy, and then expanded during her last 10 years of practice at Paul Oliver Memorial Hospital to include general outpatient rehab and treatment of long term care residents. Post graduate work also includes courses in graphic art and design at Northwestern Michigan College, and marketing duties for a small company in Traverse City for several years. Laura is a mother of 2, grandmother of 6, and lives with her husband Roger, in Frankfort.

Kimberlee Wenkel

Executive Director and Co-founder

More About Kimberlee

Kimberlee has a BA in Family Life Education, college and post graduate experience in fine art, over five years working for a Nonprofit, five years of experience managing volunteers, and the life experience of being the mother of four elementary school age children living in Beulah. Her career includes eight years of child education experience through helping with junior and senior high youth groups and teaching elementary grades at Bay Point Community Church. Through this volunteer involvement and Children’s Ministry position and she has gleaned from the experiences of speaking and organizing for large groups, programing small group activities, leading a team of volunteers, retreat and day camp involvement, and being an integral part of hands-on learning. Kimberlee has also gained invaluable experience and perspective from multiple human service missions within the states as well as two international projects. She is currently involved in the community as a coach for 4-H youth soccer (4 yrs.) and has coached Odyssey of the Mind for the past two years and maintains a level of adventure as she and her husband have a small backyard farm and love to camp, hike, and spend long days roaming the local beaches.

Laura Stanwick

Assistant Excutive Director and Co-Founder

More About Laura

Laura’s career, through her BS in Occupational Therapy (using hands-on activities to facilitate and enhance function) brings multiple job experiences; from working in a private psychiatric facility and school-based POHI program, to multiple years working with Developmentally Disabled school-age and adult populations. She served on the Michigan Occupational Therapy Board of Management for many years and Chaired District OT organizations in the North Metro Detroit area and then in Northwestern Lower Michigan. Later, her career took a dramatic shift to hospital-based outpatient Hand Therapy, and then expanded during her last 10 years of practice at Paul Oliver Memorial Hospital to include general outpatient rehab and treatment of long term care residents. Post graduate work also includes courses in graphic art and design at Northwestern Michigan College, and marketing duties for a small company in Traverse City for several years. Laura is a mother of 2, grandmother of 6, and lives with her husband Roger, in Frankfort.

Board of COGNiTiON

Jeanna Michalek

Board President

More About Jeanna

Jeanna earned her Bachelor of Arts in education focusing in secondary education with a focus in English and Communications/Theater. Following her time at Saginaw Valley State University, she spent time working for the Girl Scouts, Sylvan Learning Center, the Boy Scouts of America, Newton’s Road, and is currently working for Michigan Great Lakes Virtual Academy. Her past board involvement includes the Thumb Area Center for the Arts, Caro, MI. Her depth of nonprofit knowledge has come from the professional and volunteer experience and she is still heavily involved with 4-H, the Old Town Playhouse, Michigan Interscholastic Horsemans Association, and the 4 Season Equine Association. Jeanna and Nick reside in Interlochen at Circle M Acres with their horses, chickens, dog, and other animals.

Carrie Wilhelm

BOARD VICE PRESIDENT

More About Carrie

Carrie Wilhelm, her husband Jack, and her three amazing kids (daughter, age 11, and two sons ages 8 and 6) have called Beulah home for the past three years. Huge supporters and members of COGNiTiON since the very beginning, it only seemed natural for Carrie to take a position on the board! In addition to serving on the board at COGNiTiON, Carrie is also the current Vice President of the Crystal Lake Elementary PTC, and has a Bachelors in psychology with a minor in child development from ASU.

Aaron Harris

Board Secretary

More About Aaron

I was first introduced to COGNiTiON almost three years ago at a TC Newtech meeting and from the moment I heard its mission totally really resonated. I grew up in a large family that was mostly home-schooled, so I remember well our mother’s struggle to find places for my siblings and I to be able to both play and socialize but also learn. For the most part that meant Burger King play-places, which were the most accessible in our small town. Kim’s mission for COGNiTiON is to be a more suitable and modern cognitive play & learning space, with hands-on activities that run the gamut from arts & crafts to science to animals to technology, and best of all encourage the parents participate as well so there is no age limit in COGNiTiON.

Three years ago I Immediately wanted to help grow this innovative Science & Discovery Center and began hauling my Virtual Reality and my development PC to COGNiTiON every weekend from Interlochen to let kids explore the amazing magic that is next-generation VR. Traversing the cosmos, designing spectacular art, and even learning to drive stick-shift or pilot a fighter jet, it’s something I still enjoy doing every weekend to this day at COGNiTiON. I love meeting the families, the parents, and really getting to know the great community that’s in the small town of Beulah and Benzie County — it’s no wonder I joined COGNiTiON as a board member as soon as I was given the opportunity two years ago! I’m excited to be a part of its steady growth and establishment as a community bedrock, and am proud of what Kim, Laura, and all of the volunteers and staff for COGNiTiON have accomplished already.

Casey Mckenzie

BOARD MEMBER

More About Casey

Casey Mckenzie graduated from Western Michigan University with her Bachelors in Family and Consumer Sciences. Casey currently works at Storm Cloud Brewery and is the Volunteer Coordinator for Cognition. She’s been on the board since January 2018 and lives in Beulah with her partner Tim Nolan; their two rad, weird, kind kids, Seamus and Ursula; one dog; 7 hens; and 20,000 bees. Chocolate is her favorite food group.

Julie Williams

Board Member

More About Julie

Julie Williams has been a proud member of the Cognition board since spring 2019. As a child of both an art and a science teacher, Julie has always valued hands-on, creative learning and instilled that same love for knowledge in her three children. Julie was born in Frankfort, the former co-owner of Fixit Hardware on Main Street with her husband Burt, and then a REALTOR for the past 11 years. She now heads up the RE/MAX Bayshore Frankfort office with her broker-of-record husband Burt Williams. Julie was the selling agent for the building where the new Cognition space will be located and convinced her seller to donate the space to Cognition after she became familiar with the mission and experiences provided by this amazing non-profit. She believed so deeply in what Cognition could offer to the community that she even donated her commission earnings back to the organization. She now helps with fundraising, event planning and growth strategy and is looking forward to a bright and dynamic future for Cognition.

Rich Brauer

Board Member

More About Rich

Rich Brauer is president of Brauer Productions, Inc., an independent film and video production company he founded in 1977 after graduating with a B.A. in Motion Picture Production and Undersea Photographic Technology from Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, CA.

After many years of making films for a wide variety of clients, Brauer received the Michigan Filmmaker of the Year award at the 2009 Traverse City Film Festival, presented by filmmaker Michael Moore. Past recipients have been actor Jeff Daniels, writer Kurt Luedtke, and actress Christine Lahti.

Brauer has directed 8 feature films and hundreds of corporate, non-profit, educational and commercial projects. He works as a Director/DP/ and enjoys supporting independent filmmakers. He always has films in development.

He co-founded the Maritime Heritage Alliance in 1982 and the Inland Seas Education Association in 1989.

He has three adult children and 5 grandkids and lives on an old fruit farm on Old Mission Peninsula near Traverse City, Michigan.

Amy Martin

Board Member

More About Amy

As someone who has been involved in youth work for nearly ten years, I cannot emphasize the importance of having COGNiTiON in this community. There has been extensive research producing undeniable evidence of how hands-on, immersive learning experiences contribute positive, long-term effects to a child’s education. No two children learn exactly the same, and providing access to environments that cater to all learning styles help strengthen the community as a whole. It is the unfortunate truth that access to such discovery centers and children’s museums becomes a struggle in both urban and rural communities, whether it be due to lack of economic resources or finding available spaces. The fact that we here in Benzie County have a science and discovery center COGNiTiON says that our community cares about the future of our children – and that is something we should be proud of. I decided to become involved with COGNiTiON because it is a valuable asset to the community that makes a difference, and investment by community members of all backgrounds is what will make it a sustainable organization.

Do you like to go above and beyond?

Donate Today!

Our Mission

Memberships

Volunteering

What we’re about

Bringing Interactive Discovery and Innovative Inspiration to Northern Michigan

COGNiTiON Founders and Board

Kimmee Wenkel

Executive Director and Co-founder –

Laura Stanwick

Assistant Executive Director and Co-Founder

Kimberlee Wenkel

Executive Director and Co-founder

Laura Stanwick

Assistant Excutive Director and Co-Founder

Board of COGNiTiON

Jeanna Michalek

Board President

Carrie Wilhelm

BOARD VICE PRESIDENT

Aaron Harris

Board Secretary

Casey Mckenzie

BOARD MEMBER

Julie Williams

Board Member

Rich Brauer

Board Member

Amy Martin

Board Member

Do you like to go above and beyond?

Executive Director and Co-founder
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