Melrose Day Care and Preschool was founded in 1966, we are a small non-profit day care center in Iowa City, Iowa.  Our mission is to serve, educate, and support children and families from all backgrounds.  We strive to create an environment where learning can be achieved with the least-restrictive and most creative approach.  We believe what kids need most to learn and grow is to play.  Since we began in 1966 we have only cared for kids between the ages of 2-years to 5-years-old. 

Over the past couple of years we have been hearing from our community that there are not enough infant care spots at day cares for working families, especially families who need to use assistance programs through the state.  Many centers limit spots for families who use assistance, Melrose Day Care and Preschool, however, does not.  Currently 65% of our families qualify for assistance from the state to help pay for child care. 

This past spring we began a project to add another house to our center to care for infants. We’ve been calling it the baby house project.  Before agreeing to rent the house next door to our center, from the University in town, we thought we did our due diligence.  We had all the right inspectors come out to the house and inform us what was needed to open our doors to families who need child care for their infants while they work.  The list was a little long, but doable and affordable.  There was not a whole house fire sprinkler system on the list. 

Had we known we needed a sprinkler system at the beginning of this project, we would have asked the landlord of the property if that was something they were willing to install and we would have had their answer, “No,” before we even started.  Instead, we have families signed up to start, we have cribs being shipped, we have hired staff, baby proofed the house, and next door sits an entire house full of baby items (babies need a lot of things!) and we have been told “no, they will not install a sprinkler system.” 

Since we are a true non-profit, we cannot afford the rent on the house for the year if we are not using it. We have started this go fund me page to help cover the rent on the house for a year and also with the long shot hope that some very generous people will see this page and maybe, just possibly, we can save the baby house.  If we make enough money through our fundraising efforts, (we know it’s a very high goal) we will put the sprinkler system in and help those working families who need infant care for their budding new families.