2018 was a productive, busy year at The Plymouth Community Center and The Plymouth Schoolhouse! To summarize:
2018 Activities at the CC included:
* Town-Wide Tag Sale over the Memorial Day weekend, accompanied with the Historical Society & The Plymouth Schoolhouse being open all weekend
* Sunday Yoga Classes with Instructor Dawn Wetzel occur at the CC at various times throughout the year
* The Community Playground and Basketball court are used by children of all ages
* Community Holiday Party accompanied with the Tree Lighting Ceremony occurs in December
* Okemo Valley TV visited the CC during the summer, and created a promo video for us. The link to view it is here: http://okemovalley.tv/plymouth-community-center-promo
* Community members have utilized the building for private functions such as birthday parties and meetings multiple times (the Plymouth Book Club meets there monthly as well)
* Knitting Classes occurred for a couple of months in early 2018 at the CC
* Applied for and received a $6,000 Building Communities Grant for repair work at the CC in 2019
Schoolhouse Activities in 2018 included:
* Summer childcare for up to 8 children daily during June-August 2018
* Monthly “Date Night” childcare evenings are held on the 3rd Saturday of the month from 3-7pm
* Local children have celebrated their birthdays in The Plymouth Schoolhouse
* Maddison Cassano was my summer intern, who came from The Community College of Vermont to assist in the summer operation of The Plymouth Schoolhouse
* I applied and obtained a $21,000 Grant through Make Way for Kids to expand the program in 2019
The Grant is to help hire an employee and purchase equipment for the childcare so it can care for Infants and Toddlers. The State recognizes the utter lack of childcare for infants and toddlers, and is trying to help change that. Having a year round childcare in our Town will be a huge asset and benefit to young, working families. I am grateful to the Town for the opportunity of offering childcare at the CC and with the help of the Grant, will begin keeping it open year-round, starting this summer. (This in turn will allow more money to go back to the Town as far as rent amount.)
-> My rental agreement is that I give 5% of Schoolhouse profits back to the Town. I pay for my own liability insurance for the business and any other costs encountered.
Looking forward into 2019:
The Annual Town-Wide Tag Sale will be held over the Memorial Day Weekend again, so start to gather those extra items that you would like to sell!
There was delay in the repairing of the CC roof, as the selected contractor went out of business and thus withdrew their estimate recently. We are in the process of accepting bids again for repair work. Plans are for work to move forward this Spring.
(No money from the voted on $30,000 has been spent. In addition to the money voted on by the Town to go toward the repairs, I secured an additional $6,000 through a Building Communities Grant to aid in the repairs in October of 2018.)
The Plymouth Schoolhouse will be offering summer childcare for preschool aged children throughout July & August, and then shift into an Infant/Toddler Childcare that will stay open year round. I will be hiring one employee who will be the Classroom Teacher and work with the 4 small children daily.
To schedule using the Community Center Activity room for a meeting or event, contact Lauren Skaskiw-Harootunian at 802 417 6895 or email lskaskiw@gmail.com.
Thank you!
Welcome to The Plymouth Press Online 
Good job, Lauren,! You are addressing one of the most critical needs in our state by providing a pre- school child care facility for local families.