Meet our Board Member - Daria Helmer

We are very excited to introduce the community to our new board members and wanted to take an opportunity for you to get to know each of them better. This is the team that will be guiding us into the future as we create and open a brand new children’s museum in 2024! We are honored and excited to have them sharing their expertise, time and talents on our board to help us through this monumental process.

Tell us about yourself, your family, your work!

My husband, Adam, and I moved back to The Mohawk Valley from Philadelphia in 1998 to work and raise a family. We have been empty nesters for several years as our two (2) children, Alec (recent graduate) and Maja (Junior), have been attending St. Lawrence University. My employer, Gilroy, Kernan & Gilroy, is very supportive of community involvement and work-life balance; hence, my longevity with the company in an account strategy and sales position.

What are three fun facts you'd like the community to know?

1. I love to be active, focusing my time on waterskiing, alpine skiing, tennis, and yoga.
2. I am Icelandic. My daughter’s name, Maja (pronounced Maya), is a family name and short for Maria in Icelandic. If you haven’t been to Iceland, put it on your bucket list. It’s worth the trip!
3. When I’m not working, you will find me either in the Old Forge area, on the Maine coast, or abroad. When I was fifteen years old, I traveled solo to Spain to visit a friend, then went back to live for a while during college. I’ve had the travel bug ever since.

Why are you excited to sit on the board?

We are lucky to have a Children’s Museum in our area. My kids spent a lot of time there and I want to help preserve its legacy for many generations to come.