The Lander County Kids Club (LCKC) celebrated its first anniversary last week. The grant-funded program helps students learn while they develop friendships within in the small school.
On Wednesday, Nov. 1, the staff of seven enjoyed cupcakes in recognition of the hard work put in by the team to create the preschool and daycare. The LCKC holds preschool classes as well as a day-care programs. They're currently at max capacity.
“It took us almost a year to get the programs up and going. It’s pretty exciting and we have three and four-year-old preschool classes,” Shayne Villanueva explained, “We also have a daycare program that runs Monday through Friday from 5 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.”
The LCKC relies on grant money and fundraisers to keep both programs running. They hold multiple events throughout the year to raise money. Recently, they held a Halloween carnival and bingo at the Battle Mountain Civic Center on Friday, Oct. 27. Participants at the event paid $10 for 10 bingo games and visitors could join a live dessert auction.
The school also held a movie in the park — free to the public and sold popcorn and candy at Elquist park. The movie in the park fundraiser has become a regular event in the community and was last held on Thursday, Oct. 26 with a showing of “The Adams Family.”
“A lot of our students are going to daycare and preschool. They will get dropped off at 5 a.m. and then, when their class starts, they will walk to the other side of the building.” Villanueva continued, “We do a part time, full time and a drop-off daycare service with 43 kids enrolled in daycare. We can only have 12 kids at a time in the daycare, we are at max capacity with our enrollment.”
The preschool classes are held Monday through Thursday with three-year-old students starting in the morning and four-year-old students arriving in the afternoon. The LCKC used to run the same schedule as the Christ Lutheran Preschool where students would go to class on Mondays, Wednesday and Friday but changed due to students missing Friday classes.
The Christ Lutheran preschool celebrated its 15th anniversary in September and the LCKC receive help from grants like the Newmont Legacy Fund and support from fundraisers around town. They are using those funds to help children in Battle Mountain learn everything from friendships to learning how to read and write.
