By Jasmine Willis
DANSVILLE— The local community center has opened its doors to the smallest our citizens, by providing a fully secure daycare center.
Five Little Monkeys Daycare is right in the back of the Dansville Community Center located at 43 West Avenue. It is open Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 6p.m. for children ages six weeks to five years old.
Trisha Heap, Five Little Monkeys Daycare director, said the idea actually came from Four Square Church Pastor Shawn Harnish to provide a safe place the smallest of our community members.
“Shawn (Harnish) started planning this back in the early 2000s. He realized there was a need for childcare in our community. There is a very long waiting list at the couple of daycare centers we do have in town. He wanted to give them a safe place,” she said.
The daycare has a process involved when accepting new children. The parents are offered a tour of the facility. They are given a few forms to fillout. A physical and vaccines must be given to the child.
Heap has been part of the church since 1997 and began working with the center in 2001. She has many years of experience in other daycare centers as far as Alaska.
“The idea for the name came from the song “Five little monkeys jumping on a bed” and it just stuck. Shawn kept going back to that when we were trying to come up with a name,” Heap said. “Judy (Smith-Cronk) has done a lot of the artwork in the daycare. She is one of our head teachers for the infant room. We have a crib room for the infants. It provides a quiet and safe place for them to take naps. We can have eight babies, 10 toddlers, and 14 Pre-K children.”
There has already been a lot of interest generated in the community since the community center already provides a safe place for the after-school children.
A playground has been provided for the daycare to use outside of the building, but is heavily secure with a fence. The gym inside is being worked on to be used for the daycare as well.
“We are excited to see this daycare grow and hope to have a big impact on the community,” Heap said.
The first two weeks at the daycare are free for parents for the grand open promotion. The Five Little Monkeys Daycare is at 43 west Avenue. It is open 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday to Friday. For more information go to https://www.dansvillecommunitycenter.org
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