Center must move or close

A daycare program that has become an institution in the Albany Diocese is desperately seeking funds to prevent its closing in June.

Since it opened 35 years ago, Kenwood Child Development Center has leased space on the campus of the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Albany. But now, the retired Sacred Heart sisters who also live on the property need more space, and the daycare program has to move -- or close.

A possible new home for the center was found at the former St. John's School in Rensselaer. It had been housing a Montessori school that recently moved, but the building needs $65,000 in renovations to comply with New York State daycare regulations.

Seeking help

Staff and friends of the program are trying to raise the $25,000 necessary to do the minimum amount of renovations in order to move into the building by June.

A "200 Club" has been created, seeking 200 people to each donate $100, and a relocation fund has been set up through Hudson River Bank and Trust to accept donations.

The Sacred Heart Sisters, who opened the daycare center in 1968, said the decision to ask it to move was a difficult one. Kenwood, which was recently named a Child Care Program of Excellence, is unique in that it brings together children from different racial and cultural backgrounds, and from both ends of the economic spectrum. About 130 children take part in the program, 30 percent from low-income families.

Family feel

The program boasts a cozy atmosphere. Every week, children from the center visit the retired sisters nearby, who perk up at their presence.

"It's such a wonderful place," said Betty Bellino, executive director, about the center. "It's like a family environment here. You don't always find that in other daycare centers."

But the move has been looming for several years. "We've been talking with [program administrators] since 2000," said Sister Margaret Canty, RSCJ, campus administrator for the property. Her order did a long-range plan for the campus and realized that since the Doane Stuart School is also located on-campus and is growing, the only room for the increasing number of senior sisters was the area used by the daycare program.

In October, the order officially announced that the center would have to move.

"That's the last thing we wanted to have happen," said Sister Margaret. But "we have updated as much as we could to accommodate our sisters in our nursing area. We only have room for two more sisters now. The dilemma is so hard, [but] this is the only big building we have."

New site

Moving to Rensselaer wouldn't be a bad thing, according to Ms. Bellino. Rensselaer doesn't have a daycare center of its own; and if Kenwood relocated to St. John's, it could accommodate all its current students and even add another classroom for new ones.

A sprinkler system and bathrooms are the only renovations that would be required before the center could move into the school, according to Ms. Bellino; other changes could be completed later.

But the money is needed quickly. The director hopes that alumni of the program, some of whom now send their own children there, will come forward with donations. Closing Kenwood, she said, "would be a tremendous loss for our community."

Hopes

Sister Margaret has even higher hopes. She told The Evangelist that she'd like not only to see the daycare center find a home in Rensselaer, but also to someday have it return to lease or build a new center on the Sacred Heart property.

"We've always had some kind of a free school," she said. "That's our mission, to bring two ends of the socioeconomic spectrum together." If the center is forced to close, "it's a loss to our mission."

(To donate to the relocation fund for Kenwood Child Development Center, call 465-0404.)

(5/1/03) [[In-content Ad]]