Future of child care arrives in Black Mountain

Donald S. Collins Early Learning Center comes together on Midland Avenue

Fred McCormick
The Valley Echo
June 16, 2020

John DeWitt looks on as the first prefabricated structure that will eventually become the Donald S. Collins Early Learning Center on Midland Avenue arrives on June 15. Fred McCormick

As a motorcade of semi trucks made its way north along Midland Avenue in Black Mountain on the evening of June 15, an excited crowd was there to greet them. 

The moment, in which the first of the 12 prefabricated structures that will be assembled to create the Donald S. Collins Early Learning Center, represented the culmination of a mission that began for the board of directors of the Children and Friends Early Learning Center five years ago. 

When John DeWitt joined the Swannanoa Valley Child Care Council, Inc. — the governing board of the Black Mountain day care — one of the first issues discussed was the condition of its current location. The building, near the intersection of U.S. 70 and Blue Ridge Road, was prone to flooding during heavy rain and its limited space would not allow the day care to meet the growing needs for early child care in Buncombe County. A year later, the board began exploring potential options. 

DeWitt and his fellow board members were unable to find a suitable existing structure that would provide the necessary space to expand from their current capacity of approximately 75 children, while meeting the day care’s financial parameters. As a result, they shifted their focus to raising funds to construct a new facility. 

The project gained support from the Town of Black Mountain and Buncombe County. In 2017, the board of aldermen agreed to allow Children and Friends to construct a facility atop a hill overlooking the south side of Veterans Park. A year later, the county commission allocated $200,000 in funding for the project, which would allow the nonprofit day care that has been operating in Black Mountain since 1979, to expand its capacity to approximately 170 children, ranging from infants to school age. 

Board members, staff and supporters of the Children and Friends Enrichment Center, which will relocate to a new building known as the Donald S. Collins Early Learning Center in August, await the arrival of the first of 12 modular units that will be assembled on Midland Avenue in Black Mountain. Fred McCormick

While the Swannanoa Valley Child Care Council would ultimately raise $1.1 million between donations, grants and loans to support its efforts, according to DeWitt, the development of infrastructure for the proposed Veterans Park site proved too costly, forcing the day care to abandon those plans in the fall of 2019. 

Last October, the First Baptist congregation voted to lease the day care a parcel of land on the church’s 4.5-acre lot near the center of town. A ceremonial groundbreaking, attended by town and county elected officials, was held at the church in March of this year, as DeWitt unveiled a new name for the facility. The name—the Donald S. Collins Early Learning Center—was given to recognize the current Black Mountain mayor’s continuous support for the project. Collins joined DeWitt, Swannanoa Valley Child Care Council Inc. chair Linda Hobson, members of the day care’s board and staff on Monday evening to watch the arrival of the first units. 

“It’s very exciting to see this,” Collins said. “Simply because I know what this is going to mean to this town, and this entire valley. It’s an old cliche that children are the future of any community, and this will mean more for our future than anything we could do in this town.”

Witnessing the arrival of the building, which will open in early August, was an emotional moment for DeWitt. 

“It’s like birthing a baby,” he said as crews delivered the units. “When you have this vision, raise that kind of money in contributions and support, it feels amazing to see it all finally come together like this. This is something that is going to have a really positive impact on this community.”

The new facility will reduce the length of the waiting list for the day care, according to DeWitt, providing relief for the growing number of working families in need of child care services. 

“We’re adding extra room for babies, and that’s important because that’s our biggest need,” he said. “And, depending on what the school system decides for the fall, we’ll have extra rooms in those first months so we can serve elementary school children. We’re open to looking at how we can be of service as things begin reopening.”

A truck hauling the first of 12 modular units that will house the Donald S. Collins Early Learning Center on Midland Avenue in Black Mountain, arrives on June 15. The day care, currently known as Children and Friends Enrichment Center, plans to move from its current location near the intersection of U.S. 70 and Blue Ridge Road in early August. Fred McCormick

For Hobson, the occasion represented a significant moment for the future of child care in the Swannanoa Valley. 

“If we were going to stay in business, we had to have a new building,” she said. “Also, the ability to expand our capacity in this area of the county is so important. There are child development centers that will not be able to reopen after COVID-19, and that’s a crisis for the industry and working families. This new building will help us fill some of those gaps.”

While the journey from vision to reality was a long one filled with twists and turns, according to Hobson, the effort was “well worth it.”

“Knowing that our children will have a safe, healthy building that doesn’t flood makes it all worthwhile,” she said. “It’s worth every sleepless night to know that, for generations, this building will be here to care for the children of this community.”

Perched above the construction site as the buildings were moved into position was the day care’s director Monnie Wright, who has worked at Children and Friends for nine years. 

“I wouldn’t have missed this for the world,” she said. “This is reassurance that we will be around to serve the children of the Swannanoa Valley.”

The day care’s staff is “beyond excited” about the move, according to Wright. 

“We can provide quality child care in a safe environment, and we can do so consistently,” she said. “In our current building, we often have to close for flooding and that impacts our families. With this new building, we won’t have to worry about that anymore. Our kids deserve a nice center to grow up in, and this is going to give them that exactly that for years to come.”