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The Chambliss Center has a sliding scale payment plan for its services based on the parents’ income. Many of the children who attend the center are living at or below the poverty line, said Berryhill, and without the center, many of those families would be out of options in regards to child care.“We have to have the support of the community,” she said. “The fees that the parents pay is only about 25 percent of the cost of keeping the center open.“We have to go out ourselves and raise about $600,000 a year, and that’s in addition to the 3,600 volunteers that come out every year to help us maintain the campus and do community service projects. We depend a lot on them.”For more on the Chambliss Center visit chamblisscenter.org or call 698-2456.
Christmas came early for some of the young kids at the Chambliss Center for Children, courtesy of the Haisten Group and Hickory Valley Christian School’s K-Kids club. The Chambliss Center serves the community by providing affordable 24-hour day care and child development assistance for over 350 children.
“Some of these kids might not get as plentiful of a Christmas as other kids, so being able to supplement that is important,” said Lesley Berryhill, director of communication for the Chambliss Center. “Really, it’s just about the fun of the season.”
Students from Hickory Valley Christian, which accepts kids in grades pre-K through 5, were assigned a child in the center’s pre-K program, given some information about them and then set out to get them something nice for Christmas. After a holiday meal at the center, they acted as Santa’s helpers, assisting in handing out the presents and helping the younger children open them.
“Normally we would hold a fundraiser in order to purchase the gifts, but we didn’t take the time to do that,” said Loretta Stinchcomb, fifth-grade teacher at Hickory Valley and coordinator for the K-Kids club. “We gave the students ideas and guidelines for gifts for the kids, and they were responsible for them.”