Even though Arthur’s Community Resource Child Care Centre is closing, it is leaving a legacy for parents and children here.
Last week, it presented a $200 cheque to the Wellington County Library – Arthur branch.
Lynn Rawlins, Arthur branch supervisor, said the group wanted to make sure the funds raised would stay in the community to benefit local children.
Jenna Wilson was originally at the J.D. Hogarth centre, and moved to the Arthur facility to help out when the supervisor had recently left. With the closure, she will head back to J.D. Hogarth.
Wilson said the closure of the Arthur centre came because of the introduction of the full-day programs in September.
Because of full day learning being introduced by the province for schools in September, she said about 60% of the children would be leaving. That meant that enrollments in the local Community Resource Child Care Centre would be too low to remain viable, Wilson said.
Over the past four years, 100 different families have taken part there, she added.
Although located at St. John Catholic School, it operated as a separate entity.
“We just rented the space from the school,” she said.
She unsure what the vacated space will be used for in the future.
While running, the centre served about 30 different families. A full day of Kindergarten will now run instead of every other day.
The centre employed three teachers as well as herself.
The donation will be used to buy additional interactive media that can be used on the two children’s computers in the library, or can be signed out to be used at home.
“Before we knew of the centre closing, we did a fundraiser with Little Caesars and the families collected $200,” Wilson explained. “Instead of putting it into the centre, after we found out it was closing, we decided to donate the money to the community library and the families could still benefit from the money.”
Rawlins said the children’s computer at the library is not connected to the internet.
She added one unique aspect of the donation is “Jenna was one of my story hour kids.”
Rawlins said it is great for the group to be able to give back to the community.
The interactive media provides a friendly means of learning math and phonetics.
The library currently has about 20 of the interactive games, and the donation should allow the purchase of four or five more games – utilizing familiar characters such as Clifford and Arthur.
Rawlins stressed the games are not something to remain just within the walls of the library. “They’re something the whole family can enjoy.”
The other benefit is the games do not require the Internet to take part.
