Wee Care daycare celebrates last Christmas with HMCS Iroquois
For staff and children at non-profit daycare Wee Care, Thursday was the last Christmas celebration with the crew of HMCS Iroquois.
The Iroquois crew have volunteered as many as 500 hours a year at Wee Care since 1973, when the daycare opened. In 2015, HMCS Iroquois will be decommissioned and its long-standing partnership with Wee Care will end.
"It's one of the most long standing commitments that the navy's had on the East Coast with any community organization," said Petty Officer Matthew Jones, who has organized the volunteer groups for the past few years.
"HMCS Iroquois has been handling things to do with our heating, air conditioning, electrical, carpentry, painting," said Dawn MacFarlane, Wee Care's executive director, who has worked for the non-profit for 21 years.
The Wee Care Development Centre provides specialized care for children six months to six years old, including support and education for children with special needs.
"For a non-profit organization, where 85 per cent of our funding is our staff, then it leaves us very few dollars to actually maintain this facility," said MacFarlane.
In 1991, a fire destroyed the north-end Halifax centre. Within two days, the Iroquois crew had already chipped in to move Wee Care into a temporary location and rebuild.
The many hours put in by the crew since then have helped keep the physical space intact — and the hours have meant a lot of the children and the ship's crew.
'Very important for us'
"It's just been very nice to see how much the guys want to come back up here and once the guys come up here for the first time they always want to come back," said Jones.
Seeing "a smile on a kid's face or making the daycare safer for the children is very important for us."
MacFarlane said it's also important for the kids, who have even been invited onto the ship in the past.
"They just fit in with us and they get to know the children and they have seen the children grow over the years," said MacFarlane, who is currently in conversations with the navy about a partnership with a new crew in 2015.
Before HMCS Iroquois is decommissioned, the crew hopes to lend a hand one last time in January, by building a training room in the centre's basement.
"If everything falls in line we'll have a legacy remaining here at Wee Care named after HMCS Iroquois," said MacFarlane.
On Thursday, after children opened presents with Santa and ate Christmas lunch, HMCS Iroquois's commanding officer, Cmdr. Rob Watt, dropped by to give Wee Care a $1,042 cheque raised by the ship's company.
Wee Care has been operating without one of its key resources after a change in eligibility for United Way funding last year.
