Community Visionaries: Eagle's Nest Out of School Care Society
Ten years of building a home away from home in Edgerton
“Our educators are like rock stars to these kids. You can't fake that. It's a real thing.”
If you run into one of Eagle's Nest's educators at the grocery store in Edgerton, you'll know it before you turn the corner. A child spots a familiar face, shrieks their name and comes sprinting for a hug like they haven't seen them in years.
“Our educators are highly trained and they're amazing with the children. They build such a bond with them,” says Barb, President of the Eagle's Nest Out of School Care Society. “When you see them outside of the programs, the kids recognize them right away. They're like rock stars to these kids. You can't fake that. It’s a real thing.”
That bond is at the heart of what Eagle's Nest has built in Edgerton over the past decade.
It started in 2015 when Barb, then mayor of Edgerton, and a group of community members recognized a gap: the community needed childcare and its school needed the kind of support that keeps young families close to home. A needs assessment confirmed it. From there, the group formed a society, wrote bylaws, secured their licensing and put a program plan in place, opening their doors in September 2016 with before- and after-school care in the local school.
The organization grew quickly. A few years later, Eagle's Nest took over the community's long-running preschool program, adapting it at the request of parents. They went beyond provincial standards to offer longer care options for the kids, because that's what local families needed.
Then in 2021, Eagle's Nest partnered with the Village of Edgerton, which leased them a building for a dollar a year to see if a full daycare program could take root.
It did. Today, Eagle's Nest runs three programs across two locations – before- and after-school care, preschool out of the school, and full-time daycare for children 12 months to four years at its own facility – with 60 children registered and 40 to 45 attending regularly.
What began with one staff member and four children in care now employs six full-time staff, six casuals and one part-time educator. “Without a dream, nothing happens,” says Barb. “I didn't envision the depths of what we would become today, but it all started with a dream of what we wanted for our community.”
None of it happens alone. Eagle's Nest leans on a web of close local partnerships – with Buffalo Trail Public Schools for facility space, the local library and community grants that helped fund summers full of field trips.
"Without a dream, nothing happens... It all started with a dream of what we wanted for our community."
Vision Credit Union has been part of that support system for years. Recently, Eagle’s Nest received a Helping Hands Grant to install noise-reducing panels in the care centre, upgrade the iPads staff use to communicate with families and track attendance, and put toward a much-needed office computer.
“The words 'Helping Hands' really are helping hands – it's a hand up, and it's a tremendous help to us,” says Barb. “The model of the community-focused credit union is kind of the model that's in my head when I look at our childcare program.”
For Barb, it all comes back to advice she got from a mentor when Eagle's Nest was just getting started: “The thing that's most important is that you hire people who love kids. Everything else can be worked out.”
That kind of team is exactly what Amanda, Executive Director of Eagle's Nest, leads day to day. “We believe that children learn best through play and natural experiences,” says Amanda. The team leans into everyday moments to build early readiness skills, social interaction and problem-solving – often for children experiencing their first real time away from home.
Locations run 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, to meet the needs of working families across Edgerton and the surrounding rural area, with children arriving from as far as Chauvin, Provost and Wainwright.
Amanda, who grew up in Edgerton herself and has worked in childcare since 2014, came to lead the organization she now calls a second home in 2022. “It's amazing to see how the programs have grown since I joined the team,” she says.
As Eagle's Nest looks to the next ten years, the team is already working on its next big step: an addition to the daycare building that would free up much-needed space and let the organization bring its four-year-olds back under one roof. The Society is working with the province on strategic planning and is kicking off fundraising for the project alongside its usual community support – a trip-of-the-month raffle, Mother's Day flower baskets, cash calendars and a children's ball.
But growth and fundraising are only part of what’s building on Eagle’s Nest’s legacy in the community.
Underneath it all, what keeps it going is much simpler: making every day special for the children and families who walk through its doors. “We're working with a lot of the same people every day, but every day is so different and so special,” says Amanda. “You never know what you're going to get and it's just a lot of fun for everyone involved.”
