Rural child care center a dream come true
Running a successful child care business takes a mix of empathy, technical skills, and community support. Plus, a great team. Jamie Gillund has it all at Little Explorers Child Care Center in Ghent. It was her lifelong dream to open this business, and soon she’ll be opening a second location.
“We have such a great reputation and a long waiting list because we truly care for the children like our own. I found amazing staff that believe in the same things I do: Children need to play to learn, and safety and love and care comes first,” Jamie said.
A mom of five herself, Jamie deeply values family and has had a lifelong passion for taking care of children. After earning an early childhood education degree from Southwest Minnesota State, she spent 17 years as a family-based child care provider.
From home to center
“I really enjoyed doing home daycare, but I love the center environment so much more, being able to collaborate and work together,” Jamie said. “When I did home daycare, it was a lot more difficult to do the curriculum activities I wanted to, because you have all the variety of age groups.”
In the summer of 2020, she decided it was time to pursue her dream. SWIF’s Bright Beginnings Loan Program helped her open the doors to Little Explorers Child Care Center.
“SWIF has been amazing. It was a huge change for me to go from a home daycare to an actual business, employing staff. When I first started, SWIF helped us with getting a low interest loan, so we could get some items that we needed for the center, and they covered a lot of the trainings for starting the center,” Jamie said.
Continuing to grow Little Explorers
Jamie and her staff still benefit from SWIF support through the annual Kids First Conference, which the foundation sponsors. Little Explorers closes one day a year to attend the conference.
“All my full-time staff go to it, and it’s their favorite training of the year. We have so much team bonding. We have time to concentrate on ourselves, and what we want to do to make the center better as a team,” Jamie said.
Even with a licensed capacity of 62, Jamie hasn’t been able to offer spots for all the kids who need them. With strong community support and a great team, she decided to expand. Later this year, Little Explorers will open a location in nearby Minnesota. Construction is well under way, and Jamie hopes to open the new center in late summer.
“Part of the reason we decided to open the second center is the amount of families I had contacting me, moms calling, crying because they didn’t want to lose their jobs but they have nowhere to send their infants,” Jamie said. “Obviously, we need child care. There’s no way around it. Child care is vital to Minnesota, to this area, to everything.”
Get involved in child care solutions
SWIF helps fund community planning, public policy, project investment and technical assistance, public relations and appreciation, and professional development for child care. Be part of the solution by making a gift to our mission.
40th Fun Fact
In 2014, First Children’s Finance launched Greater Than Minnesota with the Minnesota Initiative Foundations, including SWIF. The program helped assess and address rural child care challenges region by region. It evolved into the Rural Child Care Innovation Program, which we still partner on today.
We’re turning 40 this year! We’ll be hosting celebrations and sharing stories throughout the year.
