Small Business Saturday: Island kids offers solutions, caregiving with educational excellence

Story and Photo by Karen Carr Keefe

Senior Contributing Writer

The Saturday after Thanksgiving isn’t just the second day of the Christmas shopping season. It also is Small Business Saturday, a day for shoppers to show appreciation for the small businesses that are considered the backbone of this nation’s economy.

Small Business Saturday was founded in 2010 by American Express and supported since 2011 by the U.S. Small Business Administration

Closer to home, it can be a day when thoughts turn to the shopkeepers and caregivers who make our communities better for their being here, offering goods and services tailored to the hometown.

Island Kids Child Care Center is one those businesses that can make Grand Islanders grateful for the services that enrich our lives.

Their child care business has branched out to two Grand Island locations to meet the needs of many families trying to raise their kids and make ends meet.

Established in 2013 at 1353 Ransom Road, the business expanded, then added a second location at 2085 Baseline Road.

The centers offer care for children from 6 weeks to 12 years old. Their hours are 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. The programs offer nurturing, learning, hands-on activities, physical education and more.

Owner Ann MacClellan said Island Kids has built so many relationships and has earned the trust of the community as it carries out its mission to care for children while their parents are away at work.

“I think Island Kids really allows (them) to go to work without any worry. They are in good hands,” she said. “We have our cameras, we have our teachers who are certified, their backgrounds are checked, their fingerprinting is done. They’re in a safe environment.”

Establishing trust and providing care is their mission, she said.

“Continuing to build relationships with people is the key,” MacClellan said. “It’s a lot of word of mouth. You know, like ‘Go to Island Kids, your child will be taken care of.’ ”

“They’re going to provide a good education, they’re going to provide a healthy environment, a safe environment, a nurturing environment. And while they’re getting those educational opportunities, as well. We provide all of that.”

Each teacher holds a degree in early childhood education. All classroom teachers create weekly themed lesson plans that include music, art, sensory, fine and gross motor skills, and language development activities.

And they get a chance to move and learn – playing soccer, doing yoga, dancing, tumbling, creating art and learning about the library.

“I think both the experience that our pre-K students take with them when they go into Sidway to kindergarten – they really just develop those essential social and emotional skills to get them there,” MacClellan said.

She highlighted some of the experiences that build confidence and positive routines: “The parents dropping them off in the morning, transitioning to their classroom and learning how to hang up their little backpack and learning that responsibility of coming to school, and maybe returning their folder and seeing all their friends. And then when they go to Sidway, they see all the same kids again, which is really great, because they build those relationships that Island Kids can carry them through.

She said her daughter, now 12, still has all the friends that she made at Island Kids.

“That carries through to our after-school and before-school programs, as well,” MacClellan said. “We have kids that started with us at 6 weeks old, and now they get on the school bus at 11 years old, with us.”

She gave an example that she believes says a lot about Island Kids: “I have two employees that came to us when we first opened – so back in 2013 they were in our after-school program and before-school program. And then this year, they turned 18, and they worked for us over the summer. So, it was really cool to see them come back and be in the center, know where everything was – know where the vacuum was kept, know where the bathrooms were and knew where all the classrooms were. And they were just a great part of our summer program. It was really awesome to have them there.”

Both Island Kids locations feature music lessons taught by Carol Horrigan, who retired as a teacher from Huth Road Elementary School.

The north location of the child care center has a large gymnasium; the south location incorporates a fitness program in the classroom. There also is a “Fit for Kids” program with Kayla Fyfe from Grand Island Dance. These enrichment programs are included in the tuition. Island Kids offers weekly, biweekly or monthly tuition plans.

“I just think that being part of the community on Grand Island – it’s such a small community – and it’s great because there’s so many people that love Island Kids. And continuing that growth and developing relationships, it’s just key to have a successful business on Grand Island and keeping people happy and being available to them at any time,” MacClellan said.