FARMER CITY, Ill. (WCIA) — A shoe drive fundraiser for a daycare starts on August 15 and will run through October 14.
Carolyn Denno, a Farmer City resident, started the fundraiser to raise money to open Lighthouse Daycare.
“I wanted to start this fundraiser to raise money to open a daycare in Farmer City,” Denno said. “There is a huge need for care and not a lot of licensed home providers in our area.”
Denno said over Facebook Messenger that for six years she had trouble finding a daycare for her children. She said while there are some licensed home daycares in Farmer City, they are full.
“Our town is full of families that have school age and younger,” Denno said. “I started an at-home daycare and I was bombarded with calls and messages about openings; I got full fast! So I thought the best way to fix that was to open a center where everyone could go!”
She is currently in the fundraising stage and hopes to raise enough money to secure a plot of land to start building. Denno created a Facebook event page for the drive and said she is excited to raise funds to open the daycare by October.
Denno said the need is there.
“This has been an ongoing problem for a while now, and I decided to step up and do something about it,” she said.