BROKEN BOW, Neb.— The Broken Bow Chamber of Commerce presented a Grow Award to Precious Angels Daycare (PADC) on Friday, recognizing the business’ massive square footage expansion into the former Berean Church on South H Street.
PADC acquired the building in the spring of 2024, triggering a transformation that took many hands and hours of work. This past Thanksgiving weekend was the biggest movement of items from the two houses that PADC operated from before.
“Everyone, all the staff, everybody pushed in and pulled it together and we had it done pretty well in four days,” said PADC owner Mary Shaw. “It’s truly been a blessing being here. It’s been so good for the kids, been good for the staff, everything.”
PADC currently has 14 employees and a volunteer in addition to Shaw and Director Sara Arnold. Currently, 112 kids are enrolled (which serves 80 families between their Broken Bow and Callaway locations). Just last year, PADC served the needs of 107 families when you take into account their kids club.
When asked what they are constantly thankful for day in and day out since moving, ‘space’ was the answer.
“We have a great deal more separation for the kids. They all have their own spaces to do as they need to do for the day. It’s just the overall operation of everything, because of all the space we have, has been wonderful,” said Shaw.
In addition to a full size gymnasium complete with basketball hoops, the new PADC home features a toddler area in the basement (with individual classrooms and another small gymnasium-type area), a designated arts and crafts room, fully remodeled bathrooms, an expanded nursery area, spaces for one-year-olds, and six rooms upstairs (two classrooms and multiple themed playrooms including cars and Barbie dolls).
Director Sara Arnold pointed to December 1st as the moment everyone could let out a sigh of relief at the tail end of the journey from two houses to one large building.
“(We said) we’re here, we’ve got everybody in one place. That was the biggest thing, is having everybody under one roof because I was the director of the infant house and she was the director of the main house,” said Arnold. “So we were going back and forth trying to do all the administrative duties and be teachers. So now that we’re in the same building it frees me up to do what I need to do and she (Mary) can be with the kids which is what she always wanted to do.”
The expansion for PADC comes at a time where much of the state continues to struggle to find a provider for care of their children. Shaw and Arnold said it was community support that allowed them to be a part of helping locally.
“We’ve had so many hands involved to get us where we’re at. It’s been a community project for sure,” said Arnold.
