Madill Day Care kicks off new programs

Madill Community Day Care Center, or what some may still call or refer as the Fran Drummond Daycare Center, has been open since 1979. It has been one, if not the only, most affordable and highest quality daycares in Marshall County. It currently has ninety-eight kids enrolled along with a huge waiting list.

The daycare currently has six different classes available for the children. They have the infant room, rompers and toddlers, the two- and three-year-old ages, and the extended care for the pre-k ages, along with the school mates which ranges from six years of age and older. They also have incorporated three different playground areas for the various ages of children.

This Summer they will have a couple different programs. The Summer Kickoff starts May 21, the Summer Safari, and Summer Quest starting June 1. With these programs, they are offering a learning curriculum along with a lesson plan and field trip each week. Not only do they have these fun plans and activities planned for the kids this summer, but there has been talk of doing something for the parents and staff, such as an appreciation dinner, getting a new parking lot that is all paved, repainting the inside to more relative content for kids with Autism, and changing out the artwork.

Due to all the regulations during the COVID pandemic, they just recently started allowing parents and family to enter the building when they drop off their children in the morning under the circumstances that they wear a mask and have their temperature taken. However, in the afternoon they are still having parents and family members wait in the front lobby for pickup time.

The daycare has two amazing ladies that the work for them, Director Karen Carter and Assistant Director / Master Teacher Erica Sanchez. This duo is a great pair. They work one on one with the staff, parents, and children. With tons of knowledge, experience, and education between the two, they have big plans and goals for this coming up year.

Erica Sanchez has been with the facility almost eight years, her anniversary date is in September. She has been a big asset to the daycare. She has tons of knowledge in dealing with all childcare-related issues, including interaction with parents. Even though she has been through a few directors over the past eight years, she said she was very excited for the opportunity to work with Karen.

Karen Carter started out originally working during the summers between 2015 and 2019 when school would let out and she wasn’t working at the Early Childhood Center with the Madill Public Schools. She then started working as an Office Assistant and teacher till she transferred May 1, 2020 taking over as the Director. She received the Small Business Lady award in the month of March 2021 from the Licensing Childcare Association of Oklahoma.

She said an incident while she was working as in a juvenile detention center is what fueled her to work with children.

“It started when I was working in a juvenile detention center in Durant back in 2004,” Carter said with tears welling up in her eyes. “A little boy came to her one day and said he wanted to be somebody and not be trouble. He mentioned how he wanted to be in the marines, and I told him he could be anything he wanted to be.”

“He came back later in life as an adult and in uniform with his grandmother,” she continued, “and told me, ‘Thank you for listening to me, for being someone to talk to, and for telling me I could do it!”

The daycare board, the staff, the parents, and the community look forward to seeing what great things will come this year from the two ladies in charge.