Sweet Clover Nursery at the Childs Garden

HELP US GIVE SWEET CLOVER NURSERY A FOREVER HOME at the CHILD’S GARDEN

GOAL: $175,000

Sweet Clover Nursery is moving! We are excited to share that we have found Sweet Clover Nursery a permanent home at the Child’s Garden campus in Montpelier. After 4+ years of looking for a new location, we are happy to share that we are now in the process of creating plans and making preparations to make the Child’s Garden ready for infants and toddlers.

Please join us in making this a reality!

Background:

Sweet Clover Nursery opened at 203 Country Club Road in September for 2016. While we have been grateful to have had a place to call home for the last several years, there are parts of our current location that have not been ideal: there is no staff space; very small yards with limited options for outdoor programming; and the classrooms are tight, to name a few. Meanwhile it is a costly rented space with an uncertain future as the use of this building is now part of greater plans for the city of Montpelier. In short, it has been a sufficient temporary space, but we have been working for the last few years to find Sweet Clover’s forever home. We have explored other rental properties, building at Grace Farm, and various other potential opportunities.

The Child’s Garden recently celebrated 32 years and is the birthplace of Orchard Valley Waldorf School.The rich history of the Child’s Garden is one of parents taking great initiative to create the space they wanted for their children. Out of nothing, a community group of parents with shared values decided to hire the first teacher and they founded The Child’s Garden.

Until last year, the Child’s Garden, located at 155 Northfield Street in Montpelier, was home to one mixed age kindergarten and a small Apple Blossoms classroom of 2-3 year old children, serving about 21 children each year ages 2-6. After renting the space for nearly 30 years, National Life donated the space to Orchard Valley in 2019. The Board decided to close the program last year for a lack of staffing and a lack of capacity to support and maintain the campus and program.

The Sweet Clover program is substantially staffed with on-site administrative support, so having this program on the Child’s Garden campus will remove the concerns of poor support that was a factor in the closure of the Child’s Garden programming last year. The upstairs of the Child’s Garden, while it cannot serve children, is a lovely staff and office space, providing a staff bathroom, small kitchen and lunch area, office space, as well as a front room for hosting parents for more private conversations.

While many early childhood programs throughout the state have closed due to the challenges of operating during this time, we are proud of and remain committed to keeping birth-3 a part of our school's mission. This campus can provide us with the stability and security we need to continue with strength into the future and your help is crucial in this endeavor. We need you, parents and the community, to participate in the creation, maintenance, and care of the space. We have a lot of work to do to transform this space into the future home of the Sweet Clover Nursery! The existing classrooms are not large enough to hold our entire program and downsizing is not an option! The play yard fencing has deteriorated and is not suitable for the age range of the children in our care and the parking lot is not sufficient for the number of cars we see daily.

Scope of Project

Due to the nature of the farmhouse floor plan, we will have to bump out the exterior wall to enclose the porch to make three classrooms that are adequate for 3 full classes.

The project entails:

-Enclosing part or all of the front porch to allow for three usable classroom spaces for the Dandelion, Sweet Pea and Rosebud rooms

-Adding a ramp to the front for the infant room

-Adding a porch off the back for the young toddlers

-Modifying the yard and parking areas for adequate parking and safe access to the play yard

-Adding a kitchenette and hand wash sink to the front room for the infant class

-Install two new windows in the attic (windows already purchased)

-Building a wall to split the current large classroom into two classrooms

-Upgrading the heating system to a new wood pellet boiler

-Building two half walls to replace the snow fence in the outdoor classroom

-Building new doors for the outdoor classroom

-Demolishing the existing barn

We are pursuing the potential of some financing through loans, but the more we are able to raise through this capital campaign, the more we are able to keep tuition increases at a minimum and work to increase our staff's modest wages and benefits. The Child's Garden is a cherished space rich with history and limitless potential for the future. Please help us bring new life into this space and create a forever home for Sweet Clover Nursery!

Thank you for donating and sharing with your network of family, friends, neighbors, and Early Childhood advocates!