VIBURNUM (News First) – The City of Viburnum has never had a full-time professional daycare center since the town was first incorporated in 1967. That has finally changed this week because We Care Daycare officially opened for the first time on Monday. Lance Mayfield is the vice president of the We Care Daycare Board of Directors. He says plans to put a daycare in Viburnum started about a decade ago.
Mayfield says they have received one nice-sized grant but fell short in their quest to get another grant from the state which would have allowed them to put the daycare in the old Viburnum Bowling Alley building. That building was originally owned by the Doe Run Company. It was later donated to Missouri Highlands Healthcare who in turn donated the building to the Viburnum Economic Development Committee to be used for a new daycare.
Well that grant also fell through, so the committee thought of other ways to bring this new daycare facility to light. Someone brought up the idea of placing the daycare inside of the education wing of the Viburnum First Baptist Church. Church officials gave that idea the green light, donating their rooms to be used as daycare classrooms. The church, in turn, received some free renovation work to get the rooms up to state standards for a daycare. Cindy Martin is the director of We Care Daycare. She says it was an excellent first day.
Mondays will be the least busy day of the week, since the Viburnum schools run on a 4-day school week. Martin says besides the four renovated classrooms, they also renovated the kitchen area at the church.
We Care Daycare is limited to 28 children. The new Viburnum daycare will be open Monday through Friday from 6:45 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. If you would like to enroll your child, call 573-244-3311 or stop by the First Baptist Church in Viburnum. We Care Daycare’s entrance is at the church’s educational wing under the awning. Mayfield says plans are to keep the daycare at the church for about five years which will give the board time to apply for more grants, so they can eventually renovate and move into the old bowling alley building.
