Unable to find someone to care for her 10-year-old boy while she was at work and pregnant with a second son, Carol McClung was forced to move to Grand Junction from Parachute.
More than a decade later, not much has changed in Garfield County, where the demand for day care service far outstrips the availability of licensed providers.
So when she and her husband, Parachute Mayor Roy McClung, learned that the only child care center in Parachute is closing at the end of this month, they decided they didn’t want to see dozens of parents cast into the same precarious position Carol found herself in years ago.
The McClungs are forming a nonprofit organization to provide a day care facility. They hope to open one in a Battlement Mesa church June 2.
“I know what it’s like to be a single mom and need child care, and I know what it’s like to be married and have to survive on both incomes. It’s crazy. I don’t know how we got here,” Carol McClung said, referring to the severe shortage of child care centers in the area.
Garfield County School District 16 took over operation of the Mount Callahan day care program — the only facility in Parachute — from a private provider last year. But it recently announced it will close the center May 30 because the program has cost the district money, a decision that leaves the parents of 50 to 70 children to look for care elsewhere.
The McClungs, along with neighbor and Mount Callahan director Leah Frink, said they are forming the Kids Promise Foundation to operate the Kids Promise Child Care Center. Carol McClung said the day care center will operate indefinitely out of the Crown Peak Baptist Church, which will lease space for a nominal fee. She said she and her husband hope to find a permanent location.
The McClungs will ask the Garfield County Commission on Monday to help them obtain a $100,000 grant. They also hope to tap the Aspen Community Foundation, Alpine Bank and energy firms EnCana Oil & Gas (USA) and Williams Production for funds.
The situation in Parachute is playing out across Garfield County and other resort regions on the Western Slope.
Rebecca Romeyn is a child care referral specialist with Kids Care, which keeps record of all the licensed child care providers in Eagle, Garfield and Pitkin counties to help people find adequate care for their children. She said virtually all of the 1,426 child-care spaces in Garfield County are filled and that there are about 600 children who are being cared for in unlicensed homes — likely the result of parents dropping off their kids with relatives or friends because they are unable to find or afford licensed care.
Romeyn said she received a call earlier this week from a parent trying to get her child into preschool care. She had to tell the woman there is a two-year waiting list for that age group.
Romeyn said by accepting infants, Kids Promise Child Care Center will fill a huge need in Garfield County. She said only 80 of the more than 1,400 child-care spaces in Garfield County are dedicated to infants.
Carol McClung said she feels so strongly about opening the center that she quit her job as a representative for New York Life Insurance Co. She said she had just passed her licensing tests and started work.
“Kids have always been close to my heart,” she said. “I grew up a latchkey kid, and that’s something we want to avoid.”
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Mike Wiggins can be reached via e-mail at mwiggins@gjds.com.
TRYING TO FILL CHILD CARE NEED
• Roy and Carol McClung hope to open the Kids Promise Child Care Center on June 2, filling a void that will be left when the Mount Callahan day care program closes its doors on May 30.
• Kids Promise Child Care Center will be in Crown Peak Baptist Church, 101 W. Battlement Parkway in Parachute. The center will be open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday to children from 6 weeks to 12 years old.
• The McClungs are accepting enrollment and employment applications. They are also looking for funding to help with start-up costs.
• For more information, contact Carol McClung at 970-589-2813 or e-mail her at clynnmcclung@msn.com.
