CHESTER - The Chester Area Family Resource Centre proudly opened the doors of its brand new home early last month, the crowning jewel being the village's first licenced day care.

 The achievement was more than a dozen years in the waiting.

 "All the hard work by the staff and by the community, it really paid off," said resource centre executive director Becky Scott. "This is a community accomplishment. And we're proud to be able to finally offer a day care on top of the other services we've always provided."

 The new day care, designed by Syd Dumaresq, offers 36 licenced child-care spaces. These spaces are full-day child-care placements including eight, full-day, infant spaces (ages six to 17 months), 12, full-day, toddler spaces (18 to 35 months) and 16, full-day, preschool spaces (36 months to five years). There is also capacity for 28 children in the kid zone program.

 The resource centre will continue to offer licenced, part-day, before- and after-school spaces for children ages five to 12 years.

 For the last two and a half years, after being evicted from its previous residence, the resource centre called the Raven's Roost home at the Eleanor Pew Morris Memorial Arena.

 "We can't thank the people of the park enough for coming to our rescue and providing us with a home while we waited for our new building," Ms Scott said. "It's just another example of how the community stepped up in our time of need."

 If you haven't yet seen the inside of the new Chester Area Family Resource Centre, your chance is fast approaching.

 The grand opening celebration is scheduled for Friday, September 10 at 3 p.m. It is open to anyone and everyone.

posted on 09/07/10