Novaco Daycare is back in business after suffering a devastating fire at the end of 2013.
The North Vancouver childcare centre reopened right after Labour Day in a brand new purpose-built facility next to Norgate elementary.
“We’re thrilled,” says Lisa Hubbard, executive director of North Shore Neighbourhood House, which operates Novaco. “We’re thrilled with the support too. The whole community participated in one way or another.”
To show its appreciation, the non-profit society is hosting a celebration this Friday, Sept. 23 for those who raised money for and helped build the new daycare.
The cost of the rebuild was approximately $750,000, a total reached through a mix of insurance, grants and donations. Hubbard says much of the final budget was raised at the North Vancouver Chamber of Commerce’s annual Governors’ Gala in spring 2014.
“Neptune (Terminals) and the other waterfront terminals on the North Shore really kickstarted our fundraising efforts when they made us the beneficiary of the North Vancouver chamber gala in 2014,” she says.
The previous childcare centre had been in the community since 1973 until a suspicious fire in December 2013 resulted in the total loss of three modular buildings. Although the former facility had 37 licensed daycare spaces, Hubbard says the site wasn’t suited for that many children and typically housed fewer. “It had been in the community for over 30 years and it was an outdated building,” she says.
At just under 3,000 square feet, the new building can properly accommodate 37 children (12 infants/toddlers and 25 three-to-five year olds).
Families displaced by the fire were moved to other North Shore Neighbourhood House childcare centres and given priority to return to Novaco when it reopened.
