Head Start breathes new life into old hospital
After decades of serving Cameron residents as a hospital, the former Cameron Regional Medical Center location will not serve as place to enrich the minds of area youths.
Officials with the city of Cameron, St. Joseph Community Action Partnership and parents of future Head Start students celebrated the unveiling of the new Cameron Head Start Program, housed inside the former CRMC location which had been dormant for years.
“Three and a half years ago, it takes a long time when you’re using state and federal money, we found an opportunity to apply for a grant,” said Whitney Lanning, executive director of SJCAP. “Part of the application process was bringing an architect in. The whole facility was completely gutted and had stuff we’re not going to talk about inside. The architect said ‘nope, can’t do it. It’s not doable.’ We said ‘OK, we need a new architect.”
Lanning said that is when she contacted architects Ashley Phillips and Doug Evanson.“We got a new architect. [Phillips] walked in and she had huge eyes. She was so excited. She drew up beautiful plans,” Lanning said. “Then we brought Doug in and showed him our vision, he did not have excited eyes ... He was cautiously optimistic. So, because of these two, this was able to get done. I want to thank them for that. They put in a lot of hours and it took a lot of people to make this happen.”
Cameron City Building Inspector Paul Beckwith said what SJCAP accomplished in renovating the old hospital alone was a massive undertaking and added he was astonished in seeing the final product last Thursday.
“It was an eyesore for many years and it’s a delight to see it brought back into the community,” Beckwith said. “With the Head Start Program, and the young kids using the facility, it is an asset to the community. It was a monumental task. When they first opened it up, they had to have a deep clean because it had been closed for so many years. Varmints entered into the building.”
According to their website, the SJCAP Head Start Program focuses on the development of children from birth to age 5. Early Head Start also consists of the prenatal program for expecting mothers. In addition to education services, CAP St. Joe Head Start provides children and their families with health, nutrition, social and other services.
