The Winkler Day Care Centre recently reported on its last operating year, and Director Lenora Fassett said it was a very good one.

The daycare receives about half of its yearly operating budget through government subsidies, with the other half coming from revenue from the registered children. Anything beyond that is dependant on fundraising and grants. "It's with the donations and the fundraising we do throughout the year, that's what allows us to do some of the extra things that we do at the daycare," said Fassett.

Thanks to the generous donations from community members, parents, grandparents, and friends of the community, Fassett said they were able to tackle quite a few projects.

2018 donations and grants allowed them to replace several more of the building's very old windows, install new lockers for the kids, put in some new shelving, and paint and do maintenance work on all the playground equipment. An arborist was also brought in to take out a tree in the back yard and clean up some dead branches, which Fassett said was becoming a danger.

Fassett noted a surplus from last year's donations have allowed them to do a couple of things this year already. She said they were able to purchase a new industrial dishwasher and a new four-seater stroller.

For this year, Fassett said they may need to replace a furnace on top of the roof in the family room, and they do have some money put aside for that.

The hope is to also finish replacing the hallway lockers this year, remodel the infant room to give caregivers better vision when looking after the children, as well as a few other organizational projects.

The Winkler Day Care Centre has a total of 53 spaces, and a one year average waiting time to get in from the waiting list.

Another highlight for the centre in 2018, was being named the Non-Profit Organization of the Year for 2018.