When Amy Lent, executive director of Maine Maritime Museum, read about an effort to help donate a portion of admission fees to help support a children’s museum in Newtown, Conn., she invited other Maine museums to join.

Many responded enthusiastically. So, on Thursday, Aug. 1, six Maine museums will donate a portion of each admission fee paid to help support a new museum for children in Newtown, the site of a mass shooting in December 2012.

Some participating Maine museums will also accept donations that day from visitors who wish to make a contribution toward the New- town project.

The participating Maine museums are the Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor, Maine Discovery Museum in Bangor, Maine Historical Society in Portland, Maine Maritime Museum, the Maine State Museum in Augusta and Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport.

“We’re not a children’s museum per se,” Lent explains, “but a lot of families and school groups come to Maine Maritime Museum and we know that museums of all types are inspirational places for children to learn, to experience the incredible achievements of mankind, and to foster a sense of possibilities.”

Participants say the effort to build a children’s museum in Newtown predated the December tragedy, but the effort gained greater momentum after the massacre because many in the community realized there was a much greater need than before.

“The need for the children’s museum, which everyone thought was a great idea before, became almost a necessity,” said Kristin Chiriatti, the museum’s president, in The Huffington Post on Jan. 29. “People understood that the children will need a place to heal. We have so many children who are scared to go to school now and may have lifelong poor associations with learning.”

Chiriatti lives in Newtown and is a mother of two children. She has a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Nevada at Reno and a masters of business administration with an emphasis in Marketing from the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. She has worked with children’s museums in the past on marketing service issues.

After the December shooting, communities and organizations across the country looked for ways to help the children and families of Newtown. Three museums in Grand Rapids, Mich., chose to contribute a portion of one day’s admission fees toward helping fund the Newtown children’s museum, which has been named the Everwonder Museum.

The Association of Children’s Museums picked up the movement and launched a national effort.

Because Maine museums enjoy greater visitation during the summer months, Aug. 1 was selected as the day the museums would share a portion of their admission fees with the Newtown museum.

For information, visit www.everwondermuseum.com.