TLC grand opening celebration is Tuesday evening in Charles City

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

TLC: The Learning Center will hold a grand opening open house Tuesday, Aug. 15, celebrating the “second generation of TLC” now at its new location in the former middle school.

The event will be held from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at 201 5th Ave., and will include “tours of the location and fun for the kids,” according to the child care center. Big Foot BBQ and Shiver N’ Squirrel will be in the parking lot from 5 to 7 p.m., serving food and treats from their trucks.

A celebration program will be held at 6 p.m. in the gym, including a reception in honor of Shirley Kelly, a former Charles City High School principal who has been involved in TLC for 25 years, since the idea for a quality, affordable community child care center began as a dream by education and economic development leaders in 1998.

Kelly has been a member of the TLC Board of Directors, including serving as its president, since the board was first formed in 1999 and the child care doors opened in May 2001. She was a teacher for more than 38 years.

TLC opened in its new location on Jan. 4 as the culmination of the “Grand Plan,” a years-long fundraising effort and then an almost full year of construction to get the space ready in what had been known as the 500 North Grand Building, after almost a full year of construction work to transform the former middle space into the modern child care rooms and other facilities it now offers, including a new commercial kitchen and access to the gymnasium.

The project has been the beneficiary of several large grants and gifts, including $775,000 in the state’s first round of Future Ready Iowa Child Care Challenge Awards in March 2021 and $750,000 from the same state program in January 2022.

It also received $275,000 from the late Bill Fenholt in December 2022, in memory of his wife, Doris, and their daughter, Karen, who died in June 2022. Karen Vander Lee had been a member of the board of directors and an interim president for a time during TLC’s earlier years.

TLC is paying the school district a token $1 per year to lease the space, for five years from the time the child care took possession. There is an option to purchase the space at the end of the five years. The historic front part of the building, along North Grand Avenue, has been purchased by developer Shawn Foutch, who is in the process of developing that space into apartments.

The increased space available in the new facility will allow TLC to expand its child care capacity from its previous capacity of about 90 children to about 179, according to TLC Director Pam Ost.