Thirty six years ago, Heather Betke typed out the application to the province for Russell’s first daycare, on a typewriter. Heather is now retiring.
Anyone who has been lucky enough to be a parent of a child in her care over the last three+ decades knows that Heather and the various daycare boards have orchestrated a lot of changes over the last thirty six years.
The daycare opened on January 8th of 1990 with four staff and Heather as their director.
Now there’s a staff of 25 full time, permanent employees and about five casuals.
When the daycare opened, they were licensed for forty spaces and now, the daycare can hold 124 kids.
Along the way, that growth has required a few physical expansions - the first when a classroom in Major Pratt became much needed daycare space, expanding the daycare to the north.
Then came the brand new building just across the road from the Lots A Tots Daycare centre. Along the way, there’s been the addition of a fenced in playground space. Now after 36 years and a place where many area families have seen two generations as Lots A Tots kids, Heather is saying goodbye to her official capacity. Her replacement is Cori Tumak who has been with the centre for three years. She brings with her many years of experience in child care, including a time as a director of a centre in Lac du Bonnet. Thank you Heather for your years of commitment to our area families and to our community ensuring that the centre grew with our area communities forming a valuable asset which for many families was among the deciding factors when looking at the possibility of relocating to this area.