SANBORN, Iowa (Iowa Media Wire) — A nursing home in Sanborn, Iowa, will soon house a daycare as well, allowing both older and new generations to build a connection.
Since 1990, Kids Express Daycare has provided childcare to the Sanborn community. But due to the ever-growing demand for this service, officials have plans to renovate and move into a much larger space.
“Basically, we redid a house that has three rooms. We have an infant room, we have a toddler room, and then we have a school-age room,” said Melissa Michels, the director of Kids Express Daycare.
At their current site, the non-profit has 57 kids in-house every day.
“So we are running out of space currently because I can’t take new kids in as often as I need to and to meet the needs of our community,” said Michels.
In late 2022, early 2023, Michels was approached by Prairie View Nursing Home and offered the Daycare the use of their former Alzheimer’s Unit, which closed during COVID.
“They said what a great idea for this solves your guys’ space problem, this solves our empty wing problem, and we get to make a really cool place for kids and seniors to interact with each other,” said Michels.
The plan is to renovate the previous Alzheimer’s ward, tearing down walls in between rooms and adding a playground outside.
The project is expected to cost $1.2 million.
“We will now be expanded to have five rooms for 120 children. Our rooms will be developmentally appropriate for children where we have rooms that are specifically for young infants that are zero till they about start to walk and crawl, we have a mobile infant room, we’ll have a two year old room a three and five year old room, and then a school age room that really helps kids be with their peers and development appropriateness,” said Michels.
With the daycare and nursing home being in the same building, residents and kiddos will also be able to interact and do a variety of activities together.
“There is so much research that we research that shows that seniors interacting with children is good for seniors’ quality of life, but it is also good for children’s quality of life. It teaches them empathy, it teaches them compassion, and it gets them exposed to other people. I know some of my favorite memories growing up were spending my time with my grandparents, and we got to give them daily grandparents,” said Michels.
One resident of Prairie View said she’s excited for the daycare.
“I want to hold these little kids. I love children, I’ve been from a family of nine kids, so naturally I love and I taught school for years, so I love kids,” said Jeane Van Veldhuizen, a Prairie View Nursing Home resident.
Michels hopes to break ground this September and expects it to be completed sometime in 2026.