Bloomington Day Care Center grateful to ISU student group

Monday, October 15, 2007 10:11 PM CDT

BLOOMINGTON — Bloomington Day Care Center workers will be able to provide a few more things for the children they take care of each day thanks to an Illinois State University group.

The ISU student service organization for the McLean County Association for the Education of Young Children delivered 150 boxes of baby wipes, 151 boxes of baby cereal, 14 packs of construction paper, 90 rolls of Scotch tape and dozens of other items to the center on Friday.

“It’s just overwhelming,” said Sheryl Miller, assistant director at the center. “There are not enough words to tell them thank you.”

The items and cash were collected outside three Twin City grocery stores by 22 women in the student organization, said chairwoman Alexis Santiago.

Santiago said Bloomington Day Care Center was chosen because it is one of the centers ISU uses for clinical study for early childhood education and the women were aware of its needs. The agency was asked to provide a wish list.

The ISU group collected several of each of the items on the wish list, plus a few extras including socks, a cake mix and $103 in cash.

Miller said the day care center has a hard time buying the supplies it needs with the cuts in government aid.

“I’ve been in day care for 21 years,” she said. “It gets tighter and tighter every year.”

The center has had to ask parents to provide baby wipes because of budget constraints, she said, and teachers at the center often are lacking some of the supplies they need.