Old Lyme Children’s Learning Center on Lyme Street has launched a fundraiser to help with all its expenses while it is closed during the Coronavirus pandemic.
OLD LYME — The Old Lyme Children’s Learning Center (OLCLC) on Lyme St. has announced a fundraising effort to enable it to keep its doors open after the COVID-19 crisis has dissipated.
Due to the recent outbreak of the virus, the OLCLC, which was founded more than 30 years ago by the late and much beloved Connie Pike, was obliged to close for the safety of its families and staff. In line with public schools in Connecticut, it will not reopen until April 20 at the earliest.
Kristen St. Germain, who serves as president of the OLCLC Board of Directors explained the challenges that the organization is facing to LymeLine in an email, saying, “The OLCLC is a non-profit organization and solely funded by tuition and fundraising, Being closed for this amount of time and keeping our staff on payroll and maintaining our monthly expenses could put us out of business within six months.”
The aim of the GoFundMe effort is to ensure that a safe and nurturing environment will be available once more for these children and all the others who attend the Center when the COVID-19 crisis is over.
St. Germain added, “We don’t have a reserve of cash due to our non-profit status and have worked so hard to keep Connie Pike’s legacy going. Connie worked tirelessly to keep this Center around for over 30 years and we are hoping to do the same.” She noted, “We also don’t want to lose our staff at the end of this and have children return to faces they don’t recognize. Some of our staff have been around a long time and we are hoping to keep it that way.”
Putting a personal spin on the situation, St. Germain noted, “The Center helped raise my own three children and many of the teachers’ children in Region 18. We hope it is there to support them all for 30 more!”
The board and staff have opened a GoFundMe page at this link in order to raise money to support the OLCLC and allow it to continue to serve the children and their families in the local area.