An Exhibit Inspired by a Young Boy’s Vision

In a short 50-second video, a young boy outlines his plans for solving the world’s biggest problems.

“When I’m in government, I’m gonna say, ‘No more wars allowed,’ and then I’m gonna gather up all the bad things and build them into apartment buildings!” he proclaims. Next, he’ll go scuba diving and scoop up all the garbage in the world’s oceans with a giant bucket. “And then I would announce, ‘No more trash in the ocean!’”

Five-year-old Anthony Joseph Putnam of North Grafton, Mass., never got to realize any of those dreams, nor the more realistic implementations of them. He passed away suddenly on Jan. 12, 2024.

But his father, Cale Putnam ’07, hopes others can be inspired by his son’s simple vision for a better world. He is teaming up with Worcester’s EcoTarium museum of science and nature to develop a permanent exhibit based on the impromptu video shot by his wife, Liz, just a few months before Anthony’s death.

“Granted, taking all the bad things and turning them into apartments and no more wars—it’s a very childlike view of what changing the world would be,” Putnam notes. “But it also showed what he was thinking about and how he wanted to make the world a better place.”

The EcoTarium is one of the oldest museums in the country, celebrating its 200th anniversary in 2025. As part of its bicentennial, it is building a new traveling-exhibit hall—Stoddard Exhibition Hall—and the Early Childhood Science Learning Center, which will incorporate “Change the World,” the interactive exhibit inspired by Anthony’s vision of clean oceans, no litter, and an end to war and homelessness.

The science and nature museum is in the process of designing what the exhibit and the Early Childhood Science Learning Center will look and feel like through a collaboration with early childhood educators and exhibit design experts. The goal is for it to be as interactive as possible, with sound, video, lighting, and hands-on elements, Putnam explains.

The EcoTarium has launched a $350,000 fundraising campaign for the design, creation, and installation of the “Change the World” exhibit. So far, the museum has raised roughly $91,000 through an event celebrating Anthony’s seventh birthday in April and donations to the Change the World Fund at the EcoTarium; another roughly $55,000 has been contributed to a GoFundMe page in Anthony’s memory.

Other events are to come, including “Dancing with the Dinosaurs,” a dinosaur-themed dance-a-thon. “We just want to try to have something that the kids can enjoy, because he’d want his friends to have fun,” says Putnam, who studied mechanical engineering at WPI and is an engineer with the federal government.

Anthony loved the EcoTarium and visited regularly with his parents. In fact, EcoTarium president and CEO Noreen Smith was one of Liz Putnam’s professors when she was an undergrad at Assumption College. The two reconnected at the museum, and Smith met Anthony shortly before his death. Months later, when the family could finally start to process the tragedy and explore ways to use the GoFundMe donations, the couple reached out.

“Anthony’s thoughts and words and desire to change the world just fits entirely with their mission,” Putnam says of the EcoTarium. “It’s also this idea that Anthony can still talk to people, because he was so outgoing.”

Beyond honoring his son’s memory, the EcoTarium project reflects Putnam’s support for STEM education. He was an avid FIRST Lego League Challenge participant, and his Interactive Qualifying Project—advised by Jill Rulfs, an associate professor of biology and biotechnology—discussed implementing engineering education into second- and third-grade classrooms. It was a finalist for the 2006–07 President’s IQP Awards.

Anthony was bright, curious, and compassionate from a very young age, his father remembers. Even when he was in daycare, Anthony would console other children. “He was always looking out for other people,” says Putnam.

And he loved engaging with others, no matter who they were. One of Putnam’s fondest memories is when Anthony unabashedly walked up to a homeless man on a city street—despite his mother’s attempts to shuttle him along—and cheerily offered a greeting. “It totally brightened up that guy’s day. It gave him a smile,” says Putnam.

In his five years, Anthony saw and did a lot; his parents took him everywhere, including to museums and historical and cultural sites. Putnam says Anthony loved dinosaurs, science, space, monster trucks, dancing, and baking. And his curiosity was infectious.

“He was always so curious about the world,” Putnam says. “I can’t tell you how many questions he asked: ‘How does this work? Why does this happen? Why is the sky blue?’”

The EcoTarium, in particular, was always a place he felt comfortable exploring. “Anything he could interact with,” Putnam recalls. “Anything he could get his hands on.”

Losing a child is something you never recover from. Putnam notes that “we think about Anthony all the time; he’s never far from our thoughts.” And as bereaved parents, the Putnams fear that Anthony, eventually, won’t be remembered by others. 

“He was only 5 when he passed. You wonder if the kids he was friends with are going to remember him 10 years from now, 15 years from now,” says Putnam. “So, to have this opportunity to have him still talk, have him still be a friend and an inspiration to other children—it’s phenomenal.”

To learn more about the Change the World exhibit and make a donation, please visit: https://ecotarium.org/change-the-world/.