ESCONDIDO —— The Escondido Children's Museum got double the bang for the dollars they received during their annual spring pledge drive.

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a $10,000 matching grant for the institution.

The supervisors also approved two other grant requests from Supervisor Pam Slater-Price.

Cal State San Marcos will get $6,000 for its "Young at Art" program, which brings art education to local schools. And the San Diego County Sheriff's Department will receive $2,500 to help cover the costs of a charity golf tournament to raise funds for victims of sexual assault.

Slater-Price pledged the funds for the children's museum shortly after visiting it in February as the institution was launching a spring fund drive that ends Friday.

Katie Ragazzi, the museum's executive director, said that having Slater-Price's support made asking community members for donations all the easier.

"It made a profound impact because everyone saw that whatever they gave, whether it was $25 or $1,000, it was automatically doubled," Ragazzi said. "Her leadership played a primary role in our success."

In a statement, Slater-Price said she pledged the money because "(t)he arts are so important to a well-rounded life, especially for our youth."

Money for all three grants will come out of the county's Community Projects funding program.

As of Wednesday, the museum had raised $13,500 in donations during the pledge drive, which Ragazzi plans to make one of two annual fund-raising events. The museum's gala celebration will take place in October.

All of the money received from the fund-raisers go toward covering the operating costs of the museum, which is run out of a 3,500-square-foot space in the California Center for the Arts, Escondido.

"Over time, the idea is that these two initiatives would generally support most of the museum's operating expenses," Ragazzi said.

Contact staff writer David Fried at (760) 740-5416 or dfried@nctimes.com.