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New Day Care Coming to The Spooner Business Center

New Day Care Coming to The Spooner Business Center

Another new business is coming to Spooner in the new Business Center located in the former hospital building; the Cradle to Crayons Preschool.

Spooner graduate, Kris Strunk, never thought she’d end up working with children, she was more of an office person, but her very first job was in a pre-school where she worked for 2 happy years with children 6 weeks to grade three.

It wasn’t like she didn’t like the job, or the kids, but she was only a few years out of high school and it was her turn to leave the family nest and find out who she was and what she wanted out of life. 

The family had good friends who had moved to Florida, so it was where Kris moved and combined office work with voluntary service working with troubled young people in Maine.

She traveled, she worked various places, but it was child care that grew more and more important to her.

The large church she attended in Florida had a very active children’s day care program and it’s where she found a home as the director of the 5 day program that served kids from 6 weeks old to the 5 year olds. There were 60 kids in the program and it looked like this was where she would make her home and further her career, then 9/11 occurred.

Kris didn’t lose anyone in the Twin Towers, but her boss had a son living in New York and he was shaken enough by the tragedy and mayhem that he moved to Florida to be with his dad.

This affected Kris, who had also been away from her own family and friends for years. The final blow came when the son was killed in a car crash in Florida.

Life is too short, Kris realized, and in 2002 she returned home to Spooner. Children were now the focus of her life and she took a position back in child care, but it was in Somerset, an hour’s drive from Spooner. As she worked there for 5 years with children ages 1 and 2, her dream of having her own daycare remained persistent.

It wasn’t the first time she thought about her own daycare, but money was the biggest hurdle she had. Even though she had years of experience and the official training, it just never seemed to work financially.

Then she found a small daycare much closer in Shell Lake and started in 2011. The daycare center grew steadily and eventually moved to Spooner and became a 52 child facility.

When Kris found out that the hospital and clinic were both moving to a new site, and that there was going to be a public meeting held to gather ideas for what the 100,000 square feet could be used for, she attended.

With the encouragement of friends and family, she inquired about the space available at the new facility and after months of working with the architect, she will be up and running in the former ER/surgery area sometime in April.

(Soon inside these former hospital ER doors will be sounds of laughter at the new preschool)

Cradle to Crayons will be the results of everything she has seen and done for the past 18 years.  There will be room for 64 children ages 6 weeks to 4 years. Each group of kids will each have their own space with 2 qualified teachers in each class. That’s right, actually teachers who have an associate’s degree and higher. The classes are uniquely divided so all the children will have the appropriate learning opportunities for their age.

Daycare is no longer 12 hours of play time. Now it’s a mix of learning and play and Young Star rates day care with 1 to 5 stars available. Not only do they rate the staff, they take into consideration the facility, the food and even the type of kid’s furniture.

Cradle to Crayons is looking at tapping into the food service already in the building for all the children’s and staff’s meals, while supplying baby food and cereals for the really little ones themselves.

Besides the classrooms, there will be an indoor play area that will be used when the children cannot go outside to their green play space that faces rooms at the Maple Ridge Care Center. 

Kris has already talked to Nicole Danger, care center administrator, about giving her kids multi-generational experiences by inviting residents of Maple Ridge to do some story reading and just visiting with the children and visa-versa.

“My goal is to give kids every opportunity to thrive”, Kris says earnestly.

The facility will be open from 6:00 am until 6:00 pm Monday through Friday and Kris is taking applications to place children now. She will put out a call for teachers and volunteers in March.

If you’d like to get more information, email her at cradletocrayons017@yahoo.com

There is still some room at Spooner’s  new Business Center and for information contact Nicole Danger (dang-er) at 715-635-1420 or Ndanger@carriagehealthcare.com.

Diane Dryden has been a feature writer for twelve years and is the author of two novels. Order your copy of the Accidental King of Clark Street and Double or Nothing on Foster Avenue today!

Last Update: Feb 17, 2017 7:59 am CST

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