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ELLSWORTH—Pride
prevailed on Avery Lane Monday with the opening of a
12,000-square-foot childcare center.
“The opening of this
facility represents a dream come true,” Cara Guerrieri, board
chair of Child & Family Opportunities, told a crowd of 70 at the
center’s ribbon cutting.
Child & Family
Opportunities, which operates the federal Head Start program,
also runs nine center-based childcare programs in Hancock and
Washington counties. It gives support to more than 40 childcare
programs run in private homes.
The new center can serve
80 children from six weeks to five years of age—double the
capacity of its old facility.
“You can hear birds
singing,” said Director Jeanie Mills, as a bird actually sang.
Mills contrasted the
wooded environment with the facility’s former High Street
location, where the children heard traffic all day long.
Once the playground is
in, “they’re not going to want to go home,” said Mills.
The classrooms, airy and
light with windows from floor to ceiling, face the woods. The
center features an outdoor play area with a canopy and special
ground covering so children can play outside in wet weather.
“It’s been quite an
experience for the children,” Mills said. The children packed
their toys for the move but also helped order new ones.
The administrative
offices are located in one wing of the new center after several
years in the historic Court Street buildings—physically removed
from the child care program.
Mills mentioned the
challenging environment of the former offices, including a daily
staff assignment of emptying the boiler so the offices would
have heat.
“When the staff said all
we want are windows that open and running hot water—they really
meant it,” Mills said.
“This building is about
children,” she said. The administrative staff is “lining up to
rock babies on their lunch hour.”
“This really is a wow
project,” said Janice Kermin with the U.S. Department of
Agriculture’s Rural Development.
Kermin said that as a
working mother of five and grandmother of six she knows how
important quality childcare is.
“Good luck and Godspeed
for a wonderful, wonderful time,” said John Lynch, senior vice
president of Union Trust Co., which provided a loan for the
project.
On hand from Boston for
the ceremony was Hugh Galligan, regional administrator for the
Administration for Children and Families, which oversees Head
Start.
“We learn a lot from
parents,” said Galligan, speaking of the Head Start program’s
emphasis on parent involvement. “If we can help parents be great
parents, we’ll have great kids.”
Galligan cited the
agency’s designation as a “program of excellence.”
After the ribbon
cutting, the facility’s conference room—named the Holt
Room—after one of the agency’s founders, Nicholas Holt—was
dedicated.
The building cost $1.5
million, funded by $995,000 in federal grants and nearly $1
million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. |
