Pop-Up Childcare Center For Frontline Workers Opens, Has Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony
April 29, 2020 at 11:13 p.m.
Pop-Up Childcare Center For Frontline Workers Opens, Has Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony
By Amanda [email protected]
The center, housed in the WLGB children’s wing at 1200 Kings Highway, has the capacity to watch 50 children ages 2 to 12. Right now, 20 are enrolled.
The pop-up childcare was in response to a call to action from Kosciusko Community Hospital, which reached out to Kosciusko County’s Child Care and Early Learning Coalition, also known as LaunchPad.
“KCH reached out and said the schools are closed and we need this to help keep our essential workers working,” Sherry Searles, director of LaunchPad, said Wednesday during a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the site.
The childcare will last as long as it needs to, and right now organizers are playing it by ear, Searles said.
The center was made possible thanks in large part to donations and partnerships with community organizations.
Parkview-Warsaw YMCA stepped in to help by providing staff that had been furloughed at the Y to provide childcare at the pop-up site.
Searles is the acting director of the pop-up center, with Rachel Hardy, the director of Childcare and Inclusive Programming at the YMCA, as the assistant director.
Parkview-Warsaw YMCA CEO Jim Swanson was at the ribbon-cutting ceremony and said his organization has been in contact with LaunchPad from the very beginning, trying to find ways the Y can help.
“So when this came around, we wanted to be a part of it,” Swanson said, adding he’s grateful the Y can be a part of serving the need of the essential workers in the community.
The center is open Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., and any child of a healthcare worker, an emergency first responder or an employee of a pharmacy are eligible for the free care.
The center has a strict sanitation schedule and will follow the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and state social distancing guidelines. The children are in groups of no more than six to 10, and the older children have their own desk. Children and staff will be required to have their temperature taken each morning before they enter the building.
Anyone wanting to enroll a child at the center can contact Searles at [email protected].
“We understand how essential medical workers are to being able to respond to COVID and how difficult it is to find childcare,” Stephanie Overbey, CEO of the Kosciusko County Community Foundation, said. The Community Foundation’s board of directors kicked in $15,000 to this effort, she said.
Also making a grant in the amount of $10,000 was the Zimmer Biomet Foundation.
Monica Kendrick, a Zimmer Biomet Foundation board member, said this is the foundation’s way of saying “thank you” to the first responders and medical workers.
Warsaw Community Schools donated desks and will be providing food through their meal program. Rabb Water Systems is donating water bottles.
Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Rob Parker said this pop-up childcare center is helping the community in many ways.
“First responders. They’re taking care of us, we want to take care of them,” Parker said. “This is a way to support our businesses. Child care is important. Children are important and solving the needs of our employees will help our employers. This is a perfect example of our community coming together to help.”
Searles said she’s spoken with some of the parents coming and going during drop-off and pick-up and said they’re “so thankful.” She said one parent was a bit hesitant at first, and had only enrolled her child two days a week and was sending the child to an elderly grandparent’s home the other days.
That quickly changed after the child’s experience at the pop-up center, Searles said..
“She texted me and said, ‘Best day ever. We’ll be coming every day now.’”
The center, housed in the WLGB children’s wing at 1200 Kings Highway, has the capacity to watch 50 children ages 2 to 12. Right now, 20 are enrolled.
The pop-up childcare was in response to a call to action from Kosciusko Community Hospital, which reached out to Kosciusko County’s Child Care and Early Learning Coalition, also known as LaunchPad.
“KCH reached out and said the schools are closed and we need this to help keep our essential workers working,” Sherry Searles, director of LaunchPad, said Wednesday during a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the site.
The childcare will last as long as it needs to, and right now organizers are playing it by ear, Searles said.
The center was made possible thanks in large part to donations and partnerships with community organizations.
Parkview-Warsaw YMCA stepped in to help by providing staff that had been furloughed at the Y to provide childcare at the pop-up site.
Searles is the acting director of the pop-up center, with Rachel Hardy, the director of Childcare and Inclusive Programming at the YMCA, as the assistant director.
Parkview-Warsaw YMCA CEO Jim Swanson was at the ribbon-cutting ceremony and said his organization has been in contact with LaunchPad from the very beginning, trying to find ways the Y can help.
“So when this came around, we wanted to be a part of it,” Swanson said, adding he’s grateful the Y can be a part of serving the need of the essential workers in the community.
The center is open Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., and any child of a healthcare worker, an emergency first responder or an employee of a pharmacy are eligible for the free care.
The center has a strict sanitation schedule and will follow the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and state social distancing guidelines. The children are in groups of no more than six to 10, and the older children have their own desk. Children and staff will be required to have their temperature taken each morning before they enter the building.
Anyone wanting to enroll a child at the center can contact Searles at [email protected].
“We understand how essential medical workers are to being able to respond to COVID and how difficult it is to find childcare,” Stephanie Overbey, CEO of the Kosciusko County Community Foundation, said. The Community Foundation’s board of directors kicked in $15,000 to this effort, she said.
Also making a grant in the amount of $10,000 was the Zimmer Biomet Foundation.
Monica Kendrick, a Zimmer Biomet Foundation board member, said this is the foundation’s way of saying “thank you” to the first responders and medical workers.
Warsaw Community Schools donated desks and will be providing food through their meal program. Rabb Water Systems is donating water bottles.
Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Rob Parker said this pop-up childcare center is helping the community in many ways.
“First responders. They’re taking care of us, we want to take care of them,” Parker said. “This is a way to support our businesses. Child care is important. Children are important and solving the needs of our employees will help our employers. This is a perfect example of our community coming together to help.”
Searles said she’s spoken with some of the parents coming and going during drop-off and pick-up and said they’re “so thankful.” She said one parent was a bit hesitant at first, and had only enrolled her child two days a week and was sending the child to an elderly grandparent’s home the other days.
That quickly changed after the child’s experience at the pop-up center, Searles said..
“She texted me and said, ‘Best day ever. We’ll be coming every day now.’”
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