The mission of the Bootheel Youth Museum is to foster and unquenchable thirst for knowledge and insatiable curiosity about life. As a small rural museum located in the largest state of Missouri poverty zones the BYM has flourished. The BYM currently serves approximately 30,000 guests each year; a huge accomplishment given our home community has only 4569 residents. Thriving in a community where nearly half our residents subsist on incomes below the poverty line. The success of the Bootheel Youth Museum has been dependent on our strong, positive and constructive relationship with our community and its service to area children.