A symbolic groundbreaking ceremony was held recently at the Stevensville United Methodist Church (SUMC) to celebrate the proposed building that the congregation plans to erect after demolishing the current Fellowship Hall. The new building will house a newly formed non-profit organization called the Sapphire Early Learning Center.
Chairman of the church’s building committee, John Fisher, explained some of the details of the project. He said it probably all started back in February when SUMC Pastor Sarah Merchant had a conversation with Laree Jessop, who owns and operates the Bitterroot Early Learning Center in Corvallis. This led to a meeting between Jessop, Merchant and Fisher in which the three agreed that it was worth investigating the possibility of having an early learning center in Stevensville. They worked up a proposal for creating this type of educational daycare and presented it to the church congregation in March.
“The need for it is really great,” said Fisher. He said less than 40% of pre-school children have daycare or childcare with early learning opportunities available. The congregation gave them the go-ahead to at least investigate the possibility and a building team was formed.
The current Fellowship Hall was built in 1989 and was attached to the existing historic church building. The plan is to demolish the current building and construct something of about the same size designed to serve as a daycare and early learning facility for infants, pre-schoolers and other kids up to 12 years of age. The new building will have separate rooms for infants, 2-3 year-olds, 4-5 year-olds, and school age kids.
Fisher said the whole plan was presented to the congregation on June 7th and the congregation approved the project. He said they secured a loan from the Mountain Sky Conference of the United Methodist Church, hired an architect and just last week came up with the final plans that will be used to obtain the required building permit from the town. Contractors will be interviewed over the next week to ten days. He said construction could begin this fall but it was weather dependent.
According to Fisher, the Sapphire Early Learning Center, although housed at the church, is a separate entity from the church and is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt non-profit with its own independent board of directors.
He said the proposed facility, which includes the construction of a new kitchen, is designed to serve up to 70 kids and will create 21 jobs. There will be a Director, an Assistant Director/receptionist, a part time custodian, six teachers, six assistant teachers, and kitchen staff.
“It’s very exciting,” said Fisher. He said they have already started providing some services in the old Fellowship Hall as it currently sits. Last week when Stevensville School was shut down due to a COVID-19 incident, they were open for students to attend and do school work remotely, while their parents worked. About six kids are coming for remote learning now on a steady basis.
Pastor Sarah Merchant said that in the midst of this pandemic the new project has helped shift the congregation’s focus in a more hopeful direction. She said that she knows firsthand and personally what a benefit this will be for the community. When she arrived, she looked for some place in town to put both her children, one 3 years of age and the other only one year old, while she worked. But, maybe because of one being an infant, she could not find a place in town that could take both and had to go elsewhere for the service.
Merchant said that the project meant focusing on the future and placing their hope in the future generations. “I think the Stevensville community rallies around their kids and I think that having the church be a part of that larger community support and effort is a wonderful thing. We are not doing this alone. It is part of a bigger effort,” said Merchant.
On October 4, the church members held a combined service at which they memorialized the old building that was being torn down and then a groundbreaking for the new building.
Shingles from the old building were salvaged and converted to other purposes. Members of the congregation inscribed memories and prayers.
For more information call the church at 777-5443 or visit the website: sapphireearlylearningcenter.com