Little Ducklings Daycare opens in Ainsworth

Several months after its lease was approved by the Ainsworth City Council, Little Ducklings Daycare opened its doors on Monday.

“It’s been going really good,” Director Trisha Morrison said. “I still am looking for one teacher to be in a classroom and I still am trying to find a cook, so I’m still trying to find two more staff members.”

Morrison said the program had 15 kids already registered. While it has a capacity of up to 49, spots are likely to go quickly amid a child care shortage in the area.

“You will be full here before you know it,” Washington Chamber of Commerce Director Michelle Redlinger said at a ribbon cutting for the facility on Thursday.

Morrison said she opened the new center as soon as she was able.

“I have been running a home day care center in Washington for four years, and just closed my door last Friday, then I started here on Monday,” she said. “We were doing it up until we were ready to go.”

Morrison said the kids in the program came from all over the community.

“I have one family from Hills, they drive down here because they just don’t have anything else up there, and then the mom drives back,” she said. “A have somebody from Wayland that’s interested, I think that’s about as far south as I go. I have Riverside and Washington as well.”

Morrison welcomed anyone interested in day care or employment with Little Ducklings Daycare to contact the center.

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com