New Childcare Center Opens Doors to Community

Girdwood residents, many who have gone to Little Bears Playhouse themselves, or have children or grandchildren who've attended, gather Saturday for the new childcare facilities grand opening. (Photo by Soren Wuerth)

By Soren Wuerth

TNews Editor

The crowd that formed to toast, with cups of sparkling cider, Saturday's grand opening of Girdwood’s new early learning center had something more in common than many likely knew. 

"If you've gone to Little Bears [Playhouse], have a child who's gone or have a grandchild who's gone please raise your hand," the center's director asked the crowd. 

Nearly every hand went up. 

Childcare provider Jay Bean plays with Bennett and Miriam Pautzke in a rice "sandbox". (Photo by Soren Wuerth)

Parents, children and grandparents and others roamed the new facility Saturday, many getting their first glimpse at a building that's been 10 years in the making.

The new center, within walking distance from Hotel Alyeska, fulfills not only the community's support for expanding child care services, but the vision of Little Bears and its executive director, Rachel Byers, who helped design a building that is child-centered and play-based. 

Toilets in some of the classrooms are enclosed with walls hip-high for an adult, but reach above a small child's head, an accommodation that gives children a classroom custom sized for their real world. 

Executive Director Rachel Byers, left and Krystal Hoke, project manager, share short speeches Saturday with an audience of around 50 locals. (Photo by Soren Wuerth)

"All the tables, sinks, toilets, shelves; they are all accessible to the children so that they can become independent in their self care and engagement with the environment," said Byers, who formerly worked as an assistant director at the Early Learning Center in Anchorage.

In a text message later, Byers laid out what parents can expect with enrollment.

"We have a monthly themed curriculum that is taught through the play materials in our classrooms. We encourage children to explore the environment freely and to learn about the world around them through the presented works," she said. 

A view from inside a toddler room. (Photo by Soren Wuerth)

Byers said children have 15-20 minutes of "circle time" then "hands-on art activities, STEM, or free play with intentionally-chosen materials" that give the kids a chance to apply their learning.

"For example, we are discussing Alaskan animals in preschool this month. Our teacher will show children photos, or actual furs of animals that live here. They will play the animal sounds for the children to hear," she said.

Using "experiential learning" children will, for instance, "go to the environment [where] they may engage with a sensory tray that is designed to look like a polar bear environment. The children would then replicate the sounds, ways of hunting, and food source from the learning," Byers said.

After Saturday's open house, Byers said her team is ready to go.

"This [grand opening] was the peak and once this happens it's go time," she said. "We're tapping our nails waiting for them to come."

The new building opens its after-school section August 19 and its toddler and pre-kindergarten rooms on August 31. So far, the 12-member staff expects 20 kids. Infant care will begin in January.

The new 8,000 square foot building is almost seven times the size of the older Little Bears Playhouse near the fire station—a building so decrepit the city tried to condemn it in 2011 for its forgiving roof, said Byers.

The community rallied to keep Little Bears open under the condition staff would shovel snow more than an inch and a half from the roof to keep the structure safe, Byers said. Still, due to size constraints, some parents had to wait as much as two years to gain enrollment for their child.

Children help break in Girdwood's new child learning center. (Photo by Soren Wuerth)

The need for a new building was identified in Girdwood's Area Plan in 1995, said Krystal Hoke, the project manager for the childcare center's non-profit. 

Hoke said, besides other problems in the old building—built by volunteers in the 1960s— walls are structurally weak. 

"Also, a nonprofit was not allowed to own a building on park land, so if it was gonna stay in that existing spot, it would’ve needed to be owned by the Municipality," Hoke said.

Over subsequent years, demand for childcare grew. Some parents living in Girdwood resorted to driving their children to Anchorage for daycare, three hours of back-and-forth commuting. 

Living in a town with childcare options is one reason residents may choose to stay in Girdwood, said Hoke. 

A "gratitude tree", displayed in the entry, list donors to the new center. (Photo by Soren Wuerth)

"As a mom, if you have an option for childcare, living here now becomes a possibility. If you don’t have options for childcare and you’re working, living here is not a possibility," she said in a message. 

In 2020, a bond that would have provided $2 million to fund a new center was approved by Girdwood voters, but failed to get the support of Anchorage. So Hoke and the center's 11-member board began to look at other revenue streams.

On Saturday, Hoke showed a tiled "gratitude tree" displayed at the center's entrance designed by Thalia Wilkinson with help from Tommy O'Malley.

Donors who gave the most were named at the roots of a tree—such as Alyeska owner Pomeroy, who provided an acre of land valued at $1 million and former Resort owner John Byrne who chipped in another million, as well as state and municipal grants. 

The new facility's child-sized toilets occupy a corner in each pre-school room. (Photo by Soren Wuerth)

On branches and leaves spreading outward, smaller donations—many from residents in the community—are engraved. 

In total more than $7 million was raised for the new building, which bears the name Diana Livingston Building above the entrance doorway, a name contributed by Byrne, who wanted to credit the Girdwood, Inc. founder. Livingston-Stone's son, Eben, read a statement with his mother sitting nearby.

Inside the building, childcare provider Jay Bean sat at a "sandbox" and shoveled grains of rice into a pile for a five-year-old to scoop up.

"I can't imagine anything better than this," said Bean, who started work for Little Bears June 1. 

Bean said he was encouraged by the center's operation as a nonprofit. 

"If I had a billion dollars, I'd give it all away," he said. "That's the thought process for how to shift the world."

"Kids are very important. We're building these people and you have to be careful. The more money that's involved, the more it's coming back; the more you invest in education the better the people in the world," he said.

"And why not start early?"