All the residents of a municipality might not need a daycare, but that doesn't make the service any less vital to the overall community, says the vice-president of the Sundre Daycare Centre's board of directors.
If Sundre wants to attract new doctors and other skilled professionals, as well as new businesses, the community needs to have a daycare to cater to people who would bring their families with them, said Chantel Sommerfeld.
"Just because an individual doesn't need the daycare, doesn't mean the town doesn't," she said.
A completely new board of directors has been working to bring light to the program and make it a more viable service for the community, she said.
After the Sundre Playschool folded last fall due to increasing financial difficulties, two local daycares ó the Sundre Daycare Centre and Mount Imagination ó started up preschool programs to pick up the void in the community, she said.
The main difference between the two daycares is that Mount Imagination is privately operated while the Sundre Daycare Centre is community-driven with a board of directors, she said.
"We're not in competition with Mount Imagination," she said, adding the people who work there and the programs they offer are awesome.
"But we both need to exist. People need to have a choice regarding child care."
The Sundre Daycare Centre caters to infants and school-aged children, and it also offers a program called Valley Kids that provides before and after school care for children. Additionally, the new preschool program for children around the ages of three to four has been getting some good feedback. However, numbers have been down, she said.
"Many people don't even know it's available."
The new board has been working to improve the centre's fiscal situation and has managed to bring its monthly finances back in the black, she said.
"When we started as a board, it (the daycare) hadn't been able to pay for itself, but now it has."
However, there remains roughly $20,000 of back debt, much of which is owed to the Town of Sundre, which has been working with the board to find solutions. Fortunately, there has been good support from the community and the board is also pursuing grants as well as fundraisers, she said.
The board has even been in contact with creditors to work out a payment plan. The first goal was to prove the daycare could still be viable by developing a program that could pay for itself, she said.
"It is turning around."
The Sundre Daycare Centre's programs run until June, and although anyone who's interested can still sign up a child, somebody registering now will only get a few months before the summer break, she said.
For more information, to provide feedback or offer suggestions, Sommerfeld can be reached at 403-559-6349.
