COSTA MESA : OCC Gets Grant for New Children’s Center
The Weingart Foundation of Los Angeles has presented Orange Coast College with $100,000 to help construct a new children’s center on campus.
The foundation has collected $1.1 million toward the construction of the $2-million facility, said Doug Bennett, an executive director of the Orange Coast College Foundation. The center will provide affordable child-development services to the children of parents enrolled at the college.
The current children’s center consists of trailers and surplus buildings that have been acquired over the past 20 years.
Children between 6 months and 5 years are cared for during the fall and spring semesters, while 6- to 11-year-olds are taken care of during the summer sessions.
The new center, expected to be finished by next fall, will be on the southern edge of campus just off Merrimac Way, next to the college’s Early Childhood Lab School. The lab school, which enrolls several hundred children annually, is a training laboratory for the college’s Early Childhood Education Department.
“We’re really excited about the grant. It represents a milestone in our campaign to raise the money,” said Jeff Hyder, president of Orange Coast College’s foundation board.
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