Sharpe’s Donates $15,000 towards new daycare in Moosomin
January 16, 2025, 10:42 am
Nicole Taylor
Sharpe’s Soil Services Ltd. has donated $15,000 towards the construction of the new daycare in Moosomin.
Play Fair Daycare is building a second daycare building with 90 spots in addition to the 72 spots at the current location. The provincial government approved the 90 addition spots last year and Play Fair is raising funds to build a second building at the south end of the Mac-Leod School playground.
Wendy Leeds, agronomy lead at Sharpe’s Soil Services said that the business made the decision last Fall to contribute to the new daycare.
“When the daycare fundraising committee released the information that they needed donations, Sharpe’s talked about it as a business, and decided it would be a worthy project to support,” said Leeds.
Understands the need
Leeds said she sympathizes with the parents who struggle to find childcare, and feels grateful that she wasn’t forced to choose between her career and childcare when her kids were young.
“Going back to work at Sharpe’s after Denham, my oldest son, now 19, there were more day homes. I thought a day home was the way to go, then I soon realized that with my job, especially being busy in the summertime and working extra hours, my schedule just wasn’t aligning. I went to the old daycare, which was in an old brick house at that time, and we were planning to build a new one. It gave me more flexibility, and their hours worked more for what my business as an agronomist needed. It was amazing. I couldn’t believe we had this new building that we thought was going to supply our childcare needs for forever and a day,” said Leeds.
Leeds also recalled how quickly the current daycare filled up.
“The current daycare filled fast. I remember the budget back then, it was going to be a stretch to build that place. Thank goodness we did the second floor, otherwise holy man, we’d really be in trouble as a community,” said Leeds.
“We thought we would have a daycare that would serve our needs for years and years . . . it’s not hard to understand why we already need this new facility, but our community is growing so quickly.
“I’ve been very thankful that I have been able to do my profession and have daycare for my two children. I was so lucky, because after the current daycare was built and I was going back to work part-time after my youngest was born, he was the only baby in the baby room. He had one-on-one care, it was fabulous!
“That was just as they were starting to fill up. More children came, but it was a great experience, my kids loved it there. I didn’t have to deal with the stress of having to not know what to do or where to take them.
“That was one of the reasons why we wanted to support this initiative, so that people that have jobs and want to make that choice can, and don’t have to have one more thing to worry about,” Leeds said.
Leeds said she doesn’t know what she would have done if she was faced with today’s parents’ childcare situation.
“If I had been hit with that choice back in the day, it would have been a really, really hard decision. As much as I love being a mom, I also love what I do, and spend a lot of time learning to do what I do,” she said.
“It’s a really hard thing adjusting to being a new mom and having a child. Figuring out how you’re going manage work and parenting, and then you’ve got the stress of whether there is a spot for your child at daycare or not. We shouldn’t have to worry about that. If parents make the choice to go back to work, we should have a place for our kids to go. Thank goodness we are getting this new building. Hopefully the new daycare will supply enough spots moving forward, so that everybody has that choice,” said Leeds.
Daycare just in time
Jodie Stewart, assistant branch manager at Sharpe’s said she was just able to get her child into daycare just in time. “The daycare has a two-year wait list to get in, so as soon as I found out I was pregnant I put my name on the list. I got in just in time after maternity leave.
“Daycare has helped so much because with the cost of living now, it’s hard to have a one-income family. Having access to daycare has allowed me keep working, and I enjoy my job. I can go back to work and my son goes to daycare. They are very flexible with their hours there and absolutely amazing with him, he always comes home happy,” said Stewart.
Stewart said that if she hadn’t been lucky enough to get into daycare on time, she doesn’t know what her family would have ended up doing for childcare “My mother-in-law is retired, so I could have asked her to help until we did get in or find help, but I didn’t want to put that burden on her, you don’t want to put that burden on the grandparents, so it would have been very tough.”
Stewart has seen first hand, how the childcare shortage in the area has impacted families.
“The girl that I worked with before, she ended up really having to bounce her kid around because the daycare she was at closed, and she couldn’t get in to Play Fair, so it was a real struggle for her. There were days her kid would come to work because they had nowhere for him to go. She’s at home with him and isn’t able to work right now. Having access to daycare is insanely important, when you don’t have it, you don’t know what to do,” said Stewart.
Daycare important
Leeds also explained how not everyone has the option to leave their children with relatives. “It takes a community to raise a child and lots of us don’t have family here, lots of the people need daycare.
“Moosomin is growing and new people are moving in, it’s not like you have grandma and grandpa or auntie and uncle to take care of kids, so we need a facility that you can rely on,” said Leeds. “Being able to contribute because you have the day care available makes us feel good as employees.”
Leeds said that Sharpe’s has always liked to be involved in community growth projects like this.
“We were waiting for one to come along that made sense to our group and we’ve done similar contributions in other communities in this radius for daycare because it’s a need. If our employees are passionate about a project, the company will support it. It has to fit into our values, we want to see donations like this go to a project that is growing a community. That is part of our values, we are a community orientated business, and the community need a daycare.”
Leeds says that this donation not only fits into Sharpe’s vision, but benefits the company in the long run.
“We look at the employees that may be having more children and we’ve got lots of younger people starting to work with us again. We’ll need more childcare. Lots of communities will, as the new work force comes in.
“Within all of the communities Sharpe’s services, we’ve been a great supporter of projects like this because it helps us be better professionals and employees when we have a safe place for our kids to go while we are working.”
So far fundraising for the new daycare building is just over $200,000.
