A child development center that calls itself “God’s Green House” for children celebrates its 50th anniversary this month, and it plans to expand this fall.
“The idea is ‘Growing Kids God’s Way,'” says Delane Ogden, the center director, pointing to a banner at the entrance. “That is the entire basis of why we’re here.”
Now five decades old, Hixson United Methodist Church Child Development Center will expand to include 1-year-olds in August, adding to its current population of about 100 children ages 2-5. Officials say expansion will continue in 2018 with a plan to accept infants.
“A lot of our parents have younger children, and they need to be able to drop them off at one place and not have to go to two different facilities to drop off children,” Ogden explains of the decision.
The expansion comes after the center opened a $3.6 million facility for child care and children’s Sunday School in June 2016.