Up from the ashes: N.S. daycare destroyed by 2023 wildfire reopens
Meig Campbell | CBC News | Posted: March 30, 2025 5:44 PM | Last Updated: March 30
'This celebration has been almost two years coming,' says ForestKids executive director
ForestKids Early Learning Centre daycare in Hammonds Plains, N.S., held its long-awaited reopening Saturday afternoon after it was destroyed by wildfire in 2023.
Daycare staff and children celebrated at a place that brought sorrow not so long ago.
Terri Kottwitz, the executive director of ForestKids, said the reopening was a collective effort.
"This celebration has been almost two years coming," Kottwitz said. "It'll be two years in May. So all of our families stuck with us. We didn't lose any families. Everybody just bent backwards and helped us. The families were our support."
The new ForestKids was built with federal and provincial funds and more than $32,000 raised on GoFundMe.
The daycare continued after the fire using another location in the community. It moved back to the previous property last September, using five trailers while the rest of the facility was readied.
ForestKids allows children from three months to 10 years old to enrol.
"The staff are thrilled to be out of those trailers," said Kottwitz. "It was a lot of work to be in the trailers."
The reopening of the new facility was attended by over 50 people, including staff, families of the children enrolled in the daycare and alumni.
Kottwitz's efforts were highlighted. A group of children read a poem dedicated to her and her endurance to continue ForestKids after the wildfire.
Tracy Hunter, an early childhood educator with ForestKids for nearly 30 years. said the destruction was difficult for the community.
"I lived in one of the subdivisions," Hunter said. "It was also impacted by the fire itself and I also had family members lose their homes, too."
But Hunter says having the daycare back is like having a weight lifted from the community, and it would not have been possible without Kottwitz's efforts.
With the new facility also comes expanded enrolment, which has gone from 80 to 93.
For ForestKids parents like Chantal Boudreau, the facility represents new beginnings.
"Having the new building with new opportunities, new areas for the kids to explore, just essentially seems to kind of bring life back to the daycare," said Boudreau.
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