More children will have access to quality French-language programming thanks to a small expansion at the Étoiles d’la Rouge daycare in St. Jean Baptiste.

$12,000 is being spent to renovate a room at the adjoining school, Ecole Regionale Saint-Jean-Baptiste, where the daycare will run added nursery school and school-aged classes.

Thanks to this added space, Facility Director Kayla Rose, says the centre will grow its school-aged spaces from 8 to 15 and will expand its nursery school programs to run more than two afternoons per week.

"We are bursting at the seams right now, which is a good problem to have, so it (the extra room) was definitely needed and the school graciously gave us a room," she added.

The daycare is responsible for the full cost of the renovation which is currently underway, and Rose says fundraising has been quite successful.

"We've almost reached our goal," she said. Rose anticipates the work will be finished and paid for by the end of summer.

Most recently, the project benefitted from a $500 Farm Credit Canada (FCC) grant designed specifically to support minority language projects across Canada. In 2019, FCC contributed $50,000 to 23 initiatives under this program.

Rose feels it is extremely important to maintain the vitality of the French language, one of Canada's official languages.

"I have children that come to this daycare centre, I grew up in this town and grew up speaking French. I think it's extremely important to hold on that as long as we can, to encourage more families to join in and learn in this wonderful language and keep growing our Francophone community."

Representatives of the daycare will be hosting a fundraising supper as part of the annual Helping Our Kids festival planned for May 25th in St. Jean.