Like the children it cares for, PC Tots is growing fast.
After getting up and running last spring, the nonprofit child care provider recently expanded, opening a second location in May solely dedicated for children up to 3 years old. Carol Loomis, PC Tots’ president and acting executive director, said the new center, called PC Tots Too and located at 1881 Prospector Ave., is a critical part of the organization’s mission to meet the needs of working parents in the Park City area.
As soon as PC Tots opened its doors last year, demand for its affordable child care was apparent, with parents adding their children to the waitlist even before they were born. Loomis said PC Tots is still unable to meet the need, but the new center — made possible through a $250,000 grant from Vail Resorts CEO Rob Katz and his wife Elana Amsterdam — has allowed the nonprofit to expand its enrollment to more than 100 children.
“It’s been quite a wild adventure and it’s been neat to see,” Loomis said. “This new center is full of children who were waiting before we even had it open because there’s such a need for tuition-assisted daycare in this town. For me, it’s been an honor to be involved.”
Loomis said that, before Katz and Amsterdam’s grant, PC Tots had no intention of expanding so soon. And while the growth is exciting because it means the organization is assisting more families than first envisioned, it’s also brought a host of challenges. Chief among them is coming up with the financial resources to make the business model — which includes providing tuition assistance based on income — sustainable.
The cost of finding a new space for PC Tots Too was substantial, Loomis said, and it’s also more costly to staff the centers with the increased enrollment. With that in mind, Loomis is hopeful the community will continue to support the nonprofit and will remember PC Tots during events like Live PC Give PC.
That’s the only way PC Tots will be able to thrive well into the future, she said.
“It takes a village to put together something like this because it’s expensive,” she said. “We’re grateful for all the support we get.”
PC Tots is scheduled to hold an open house at its second location, PC Tots Too, on Aug. 17 to thank Katz and Amsterdam and show off the facility to the public. The open house will be held from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Visit pctots.org for more information.