It's been a busy few days for Stettler's Share Bear Play School, which has held both a fundraising barbecue and an open house at its new location in town.
The play school, which has operated for more than three decades, recently moved from its location at the Stettler schools complex to a house on 52 Street. The play school had to seek special zoning approval from council as a play school wasn't in the range of the home's normal zoning.
Extensive renovations were needed to make the home perfect for the play school, with fire rated doors, walls and stairs installed, as well as renovations to help open up more space.
From the faces of both the parents and the children who joined the Monday, Sept. 28 open house, the new play school location is a big hit. Bright, open and airy, the location allowed children to race around playing with each other while parents went on tours or socialized.
"We looked at several options, and this (home) was the most feasible," Lynne Potter, one of the play school's teachers, said.
She and Share Bear Play School Society president Krista Nordstrom explained that earlier in the year, Clearview School Board approached the parent-run play school inviting it to come under the Clearview umbrella. The school board would take over running the play school.
After a meeting with the parents, a vote was held, and the play school opted to remain parent-run, making its own decisions. The first decision was where to move, as the space at Clearview was no longer available to them.
"We really appreciate what Clearview did for us all these years," Nordstrom said, wishing to be clear there was no hard feelings between the play school and the school board.
In fact, the location at Clearview had been cramped for several years, with not enough room to really play the way the new home will let them. But even then, the new home almost didn't happen.
Without space, the play school was looking at possibly having to close, when a member of the community — Bernie Jackson of Wells Furniture — came on board, offering to purchase a location and rent it to the play school.
"It was like divine intervention," Nordstrom noted with a laugh.
There's still some work to complete before the play school opens this week. Railings need to be installed on the stairs to the basement play space, padding added to some of the sharp edges, and hooks for the children's jackets and back-packs need to be installed. For the most part, though, the work remaining is cosmetic. The games, the tables, and art and science stations are all waiting for the happy little hands of youngsters in the community.
The play school runs morning and afternoon sessions every day of the week except Friday, Saturday and Sunday. On Friday, there is a new morning program which filled up pretty much right away, Deidre Northrop, another play school teacher, explained. There's still some space in the Tuesday-Thursday programs, she noted.
Northrop was one of the play school teachers helping at a barbecue held outside the curling rink on Friday, Sept. 25, while the local Kinettes hosted its annual rummage sale. The two sessions, one in the morning, one in the evening, had the play school selling hot dogs and pulled-pork sandwiches, along with pop and water.
"We sold out of pulled pork in the morning," Northrop said with a laugh. "We didn't expect that to happen." The gap between barbecues allowed the staff to buy more pork and prep it for the afternoon, cooking it up just in time for the post-work rush on the busy rummage sale.