TreeFrog Daycare in Fulford has filled a vital community role for more than three decades, facing its share of “character-building” challenges, including its most recent one last week.
Staff arrived at the centre on South Ridge Drive Tuesday, Jan. 20 to discover a flood caused by a faulty toilet fill valve and water shooting out of a toilet tank.
Danielle Taylor, chair of the Fulford Harbour Childcare Society (FHCS), which runs TreeFrog Daycare, said the plumber’s assessment was that the bizarre scenario couldn’t be duplicated, “even if you tried.”
The result was more than an inch of water on the bathroom floor by Tuesday morning, which leaked underneath the walls and into daycare coordinator Lisa Bleskie’s office.
“Immediate action was taken to get soaking wet carpet removed, dehumidifiers and fans in place, and the plumbing issue repaired, and we were able to contain the situation in a way that allowed us to continue to provide care for the children scheduled,” explains a funding request letter sent to the Salt Spring Lions Club.
Lions Club treasurer Sandy Harkema had seen Taylor’s social media post about TreeFrog’s plight and asked that a letter be delivered in time for the club’s Jan. 23 board meeting. Bleskie and board members were thrilled when Harkema told them the board approved a $7,000 donation for the society.
Between that money and funds donated to a GoFundMe campaign so far, the society can deal with remediation costs either directly or through paying the insurance deductible, said Taylor.
“So the immediate issue of the flood has been dealt with — aside from having to refloor the office and stuff like that — but it basically opened up a Pandora’s box that we didn’t know existed to way bigger issues.”
Those include a need to replace the building’s original poly-b pipes, which the society has been advised will cause problems in the foreseeable future.
The timing of the flood was particularly unfortunate as it was the first day of the daycare’s operation under a new multi-aged program licence that helped address a staffing shortage causing a facility closure in December 2021.
“We had a quite comfortable nest egg when we had to close for six months due to lack of staffing, right after Covid,” said Taylor, “but obviously we had to eat into that, and there wasn’t much left when we reopened our doors. And we’ve just slowly been rebuilding these last two years, and it’s just been really, really hard.”
Other financial challenges included damage from a washing machine malfunction, hot water tank replacement and a period of higher staffing costs before the multi-aged program licence was obtained.
TreeFrog provides daycare for more than 20 island children. Taylor, who was among the facility’s first cohort in 1994/1995 and whose three children have also attended, said the society has a solid business plan and TreeFrog is in no danger of closing, but any and all community support is appreciated to tackle building upgrades in plumbing and other areas.
“If there are any donations of material or time or labour that the public can offer to get us back on our feet, that would be huge,” said Taylor.
People can reach out to the daycare at treefrogdaycare@shaw.ca or 250-653-4998.
Contributions can also be made to the GoFundMe campaign.