Thanks to director, parents, day care will stay open

Hundreds of children have attended Discovery Day Care Preschool and Kindergarten in the 20 years that it operated out of the Lincoln Way Church of God in Coeur d’Alene.Director Alyson Wayman said the preschool will relocate in the fall to a brand new facility, independent from the church and with a new name, but offering the same Christian-focused day care. It will be housed in a newly renovated building that formerly housed Adelphia Communications on Indiana Avenue. The center, renamed Discovery Christian Day Care, already is officially separate from the church and is governed by a nonprofit board of directors, comprised of parents of former students.

In January 2003, the church announced that the day-care center would either close or relocate. Wayman and parents got together to make relocation a reality.

“My children went through there years ago. It fills a niche that’s hard to find – good Christian day care,” said Bob Henninger, president of the board of directors.

“One of the things that we focus on is that we like to have small groups of kids with their own teacher in their own classroom,” Wayman explained. That’s in contrast to having a lot of kids in a large area with many teachers. The center has 16 staff members and currently has 50 students, which will increase to about 70 in the fall.

“We want to create people who will be be great team players, great employers, employees, spouses,” Wayman said. She added that the day-care center is open to all children of the community.

Getting the new center off the ground has been a David-going-against-Goliath effort. “We don’t have a big chunk of money in reserve,” Wayman said. “We can’t get loans easily. We don’t have any collateral.”

Relocation required that the center form a nonprofit organization with a board of directors, lease a building and then renovate it. The organization has relied on donations and volunteers to do much of the work.

“I have to keep asking (for help and donations), but so much more is needed … it’s hard to keep asking when so much has been given,” Wayman said. The center plans to open in the fall before school starts, but much still needs to be done — some framing, insulating, hanging drywall, finish work such as laying flooring and installing cabinets, and final plumbing. “We’ve barely touched the playground,” Wayman said.

Parents, volunteers and other churches, particularly Coeur d’Alene Bible Church, have pitched in to help, but much of the work has been shouldered by Wayman herself. She acts as a kind of general contractor, coordinating the work of subcontractors and volunteers, and even doing the physical labor herself.

“I’ve learned how to tear down walls, put up insulation, crawl around the attic,” she said.

“She’s done a Herculean effort,” Henninger said. Without her, the center “wouldn’t have happened. It would have folded up its doors.”

Her dedication to the project comes from her faith. “To me, it’s very much a ministry. This is the ministry the Lord has given me. I don’t have to go to Africa or India – it’s right here in Coeur d’Alene.”

Wayman said God has always provided what they’ve needed. When the dry wall hanger they had lined up was unable to install the Sheet Rock due to scheduling conflicts, Wayman says she prayed about it. With an hour, the father of a student poked his head in her office and volunteered.

“Always, the Lord provides just enough for what we need at the time,” she said.