The Claresholm Child Care Society’s day care centre was given the go-ahead last week to re-open to provide care for the children of workers in essential services.
Director Kim Gugala said the day care re-opened on April 8, but they got the phone call to re-open on Monday, April 6.
It was a long process from March 15, when all day cares in Alberta were closed by the province in an effort to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
The province was using a variety of parameters to assess which day cares could re-open, such as community need and location to Alberta Health Services facilities.
“We fall within a lot of those parameters,” Gugala said.
They continued to advocate on the society’s behalf, noting Claresholm has a lot of Alberta Health Services facilities.
“A lot of people are required to work as essential staff,” Gugala said.
The society sent letters to everyone from provincial ministers to the local MLA.
There were a few teleconferences with ministers, and Gugala said the society remained hopeful as they waited.
“We had a lot of support from the town,” she said, adding town council sent a letter of support to the minister of municipal affairs. “That was really great.”
The site manager for the Claresholm General Hospital also sent a letter of support to re-open the day care.
“We had a lot of community support to go with it,” Gugala sad. “It shows there is a need.”
Continued on page 3 of the paper.
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