EXCERPTS:

The first local child care centre offering services 24 hours a day, seven days a week, could be open within two years.

Kawartha Child Care Services has committed $250,000 toward capital costs for the Janet Castle Early Learning Centre.

Several companies in the city, including Quaker Oats and AmeriCredit, have shift work and there is a definite need for a local child service open nights and weekends, said Sheila Olan-Maclean, executive director of Kawartha Child Care.

"We are looking at a two-year project to establish the centre and have committed $250,000 as seed money.''

Ontario Hydro and General Motors are among companies who sponsor 24-hour child care centres in other locations, Olan-Maclean said.

"We will be looking for corporate sponsors,'' she said.

Plans include finding an appropriate building that can also accommodate the service's home child-care program and administrative centre, Olan-Maclean said.

Reprinted from the Peterborough Examiner.