Countywide : County Aid Boosts Blind Child Center

Two-year-old Kyle has been working diligently this week with a physical therapist to improve his muscle tone and strength at the Blind Children’s Learning Center in Santa Ana.

But were it not for a recent $25,000 grant, the blind child, who lives in San Juan Capistrano, would not even be at the center.

The Blind Children’s Learning Center was one of nine county child-care organizations that received grants this month from a special county fund. Started in 1989, the Developer Child Care Fee Program earmarks fees collected from new residential and commercial developments in unincorporated portions of the county specifically for child care organizations.

At a brief ceremony Thursday morning at the Santa Ana center, County Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez, who helped create the developer fee program, distributed checks totaling $102,500 to representatives from child care agencies.

“Hopefully, they will be able to expand and improve their programs,” said Vasquez. “But most importantly we will be empowering our most precious commodity, which is our children.”

The learning center, which cares for 54 students ages 6 months to 6 years, received the largest grant this year. Gabrielle Hass, the center’s executive director, said the money will pay for transporting as many as 15 children from South County locations to the center.

“The grant gives us the opportunity to solve a problem that we’ve had for quite a while, and that’s providing transportation for people with disabilities,” Hass said. “Hopefully, by the end of the year anyone in South County without transportation will be able to come here.”

St. Andrew’s Infant-Toddler Center in Irvine, which watches over 74 infants, received a grant of $15,000. The center has used their money to refurbish their aging building.

“Our building was looking pretty crummy,” said Glenda Akers, the center’s director. “When I got the call that we got the grant, I screamed so loud my teachers thought I’d won the lotto.”

In spite of the sluggish economy, county officials say this year’s grants were the most ever doled out from the child-care developers fund. By contrast, in the program’s first year, the county gave out seven grants totaling $54,660.

The seven other agencies receiving grants, which ranged from $1,600 to $25,000, used their funds for scholarships, child-care training programs and day-care equipment.