The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
BRIDGING THE GAP
Day care launches crowdfunding effort to expand reach
The Oneida Area Day Care Center has been a part of the community since 1971 and care for infants, toddlers, preschool and pre-K children. All that hard work shines through with just a visit.
“I’m responsible for quite a bit,” Executive Director Marialena Froio said. “I’m responsible for enrollment, the New York State license, I supervise the employees, all of our contracts and who we partner with and I’m a little bit of the maintenance person.”
Being a not-for-profit corporation, it can be sometimes hard to balance it all.
Froio admits that the daycare center cannot afford to have a maintenance person on staff and that many of those tasks fall to her. “I do a lot of the groundworks and the lights, the gutters, the roof and whatever else. I’ve had to teach myself,” she said with a laugh. “I learned a lot fromYouTube.”
On top of that, Froio covers in the classrooms, providing breaks and taking over shifts should the need arises, due to being short staffed.
There’s so much the Oneida Area Day Care Center wants to do, but with the bulk of their money coming from parent payments, Froio is looking to expand horizons.
“We seem to struggle to bridge the gap between the number of children we have in the program compared to
what we could have,” she said. “If our numbers are low, it makes it a difficult situation for us.”
With the rising cost of operations and general expenses that come with maintaining themselves, the Oneida Area Day Care Center has started a crowdfunding campaign to help them reach their goal.
“We’re starting a campaign called ‘ Dollars for Daycare’,” she said. “We’re going to try and reach out to the local community, to businesses and local families.”
And the families are there to support the daycare center.
Local families had a lot to say and even more praise to give to the Oneida Area Day Care Center, voicing their trepidation to begin with and soon their love for the place that cares for their child as much as they do.
Tiffany Saunders lives in Syracuse and works as a Social Welfare Examiner and drives out to Madison County for work, but not before visiting the Oneida Area Day Care Center.
“When I drop my son off in the morning I never worry as I know that he is in good hands with caring professionals,” she said. “I could not ask for a better atmosphere and center. I am so grateful to all the teachers and staff for all that they do.”
Raising a child is a full time job and when trying to make ends meet, it can be hard to give them the time they need. Froio admits that the work she and her staff do is not one that you can just punch in and out of and that they need to be there for them. But to them, it’s well worth it.
That’s why they have been working to find a way to keep doing what they love and started to reach out to the community.
Those interested in donating to Dollars for Daycare can go to their website at youcaring. com/ oadcc or visit their Facebook page.