Little Lamb Academy celebrates new facility this weekend

Immanuel congregation and volunteers worked to make new center a reality

The community is invited to a ribbon cutting and open house for the Little Lamb Academy in Medford.

The childcare center recently moved into its new facilities attached to the Immanuel Lutheran Church and School in Medford. A ribbon cutting ceremony will be held on Saturday, March 26 at 9:30 a.m. It will be followed by facility tours and activities from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

There will be guided tours of the facility as well as staff members and volunteers leading activities. One volunteer will be reading stories to children and other teachers in the center will be leading craft projects. Parents will have the opportunity to purchase mugs made with their children’s art projects. In addition there will be snacks and a book giveaway.

Little Lamb Academy is a Christianbased child care center that has served the community for 15 years. More than a year ago, the congregation at Immanuel Lutheran Church came together and approved moving forward addressing the need for increased childcare options in the community and approved a project to add onto the church and school structure.

Mary Ellen Lawson, director of Little Lamb Academy explained that this past summer the months of planning came to a head as a crew of workers with Builders for Christ began work in July. The project was completed shortly after Christmas and they moved into the new facility on February 28.

The move into the larger and purposebuilt building has greatly expanded the ability of Little Lamb to provide childcare needs. Previously they had a capacity of 40 kids and now, when fully staffed, will be able to meet the needs of 70 children from ages two weeks to 12 years old.

Lawson said they are currently at about 50 youth, not all of whom are full time. She noted that they have a waiting list for spots as they become open and are working to fill staffing needs to get additional spaces. “In the next few weeks we will be adding more,” she said.

When fully staffed, she said they will be able to have 24 spots for children aged two and younger.

Lawson said she found the experience of being part of planning, building and moving into a new center to be eye opening. “I just think of all that went into building a building and the things you needed to consider,” she said, noting they had questions like the kind of electricity to bring into the building and what street the water would come in from.

A great deal of planning went into even the smallest details. Lawson explained that the rooms each have color themes which are muted, soothing colors that have been identified as being the best as far as helping with the development of children.

In addition, the facility has in-floor heating and is fully air conditioned. Lawson also noted that thanks to the COVID- 19 assistance funds they received, they were able to purchase new furniture for the rooms.

Lawson said the project would not have been possible but for the efforts of the Builders for Christ. “They put in a lot of hours making this happen,” she said, noting that each week they would have hundreds of donated hours of skilled labor.

The biggest change Lawson said of moving into the new building is the amount of additional space they have. She noted the overall facility is quieter because less sound carries from one room to another. She said the additional space also gives flexibility for allowing groups to do different activities at the same time or to put one group down for naps at a different time than others.

While the building is completed and in use, work is still continuing on other parts of the project. The mobile home that had been used to house the center for the past 15 years will be sold and moved from the location this summer.

This summer, work will also take place to build a new playground with access directly from the one and 2 years old spaces.

Lawson invites people to come and tour the new facility. She noted that people do not need to be a member of the congregation to send their children to Little Lamb with access open to anyone.