On Monday, members of the United Methodist Church in Holland, IN opened a brand new daycare center, after years of planning and construction.
Angie Sander is the director of HUMmingbird Daycare Ministry and she says the building was once an abandoned restaurant.
"The whole facility has just been a dream come true," Sander said.
When Sander started at the ministry seven years ago, they housed just over 60 children. Today, they have over 125.
"Seven years ago, we would talk about the abandoned restaurant that sat here and you know, how our vision would be, down the road some time, we were going to purchase it and make it into our new facility," Sander said. "Which was obviously a pipe dream. Anybody who works in child care knows."
That dream started to become reality, when in 2011, the building was donated to the daycare by fellow church members. Soon after, Paul and Gloria Lindsey, also of Holland, started to plan the construction.
"We enticed or tried to involve the community to step forward, to not only be a financial supporter, but a supporter through construction, whatever needs they could fill," Paul Lindsey said.
The Holland community answered the call. Lindsey says churches and businesses donated their time and money to the project, and two years later, the daycare's expansion is complete.
"It was something, definitely, you know, the church themselves wouldn't have been able to do on their own," Sander said. "And the childcare ministry would not have been able to do this on their own."
"We're kind of proving the theory that small towns can survive," Lindsey said. "And this is a good example of it."
If you want to find more information about HUMmingbird Daycare Ministry, you can visit their
Facebook page.
