Our Lady’s Child Care Center of Notre Dame

Posted by ichatmedia on August 1, 2009

Perri Taylor calls their new infant-toddler building at Our Lady’s Child Care Center of Notre Dame parish a blessing.

“Now we can more fully address a real need in the community,” said Taylor, director of the child care center.

The Most Rev. Bishop Timothy A. McDonnell, of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield, will bless the center’s newly constructed building on Aug. 9 after Notre Dame’s 10:30 a.m. liturgy. Tours of the new infant-toddler building will follow.

The center, located on 35 Pleasant St., welcomes children and families of all faiths with the former school building housing youngsters from 2 years and 9 months old to preschoolers up to age 6. The new infant-toddler building will open its doors to children from 4 weeks old to 2 years and 9 months.

Taylor noted when the center first opened its preschool in September 2007, they had a single set of twins to care for.

In less than two years, the preschool has grown to include 22 children. With the additional space, they will have room for 63.

“When the parish school closed, Father Champigny didn’t want the building to just sit there and deteriorate,” Taylor said.

“I had mentioned before that we should have a preschool or daycare center, and that must have stuck in the back of our pastor’s mind,” she added about being asked to lead the center.

The new infant-toddler building features three rooms, each of which can house up to nine children.

“Since we first opened Our Lady’s Child Care Center in 2007, it has been well received by the community – clearly filling an important need for our working families. The Notre Dame parish community is blessed to have this effort as part of our parish outreach and we are excited that as it now expands even more, local families will benefit from its services,” said the Rev. Thomas Champigny, pastor of Notre Dame parish.

For more information, visit Child Care Tips and Guides