Our last “back to school” at 174 First Avenue  

Sep 16, 2022

These Good Morning alumni are also experiencing a “last first day” – they are starting their last year of high school this September!

Welcome to this new toddler who came by to check out his new school before starting in the nursery school program this year! Spaces are available for toddlers aged 18 months – 3 years in our morning nursery school program, which runs on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

By Katherine Liston

Every September for the last 41 years, preschoolers have arrived at the doors of Good Morning Creative Arts and Preschool for their very first day of school. They come ready to learn, make new friends and play. They enter through the heavy wooden doors, and they stream down the stairs into the hallway where they hang their bags on their very own hooks. They say goodbye to their parents and enter their first-ever classroom, filled with art supplies, sensory tables, books, play structures and more. Good Morning has been so fortunate to have been a part of so many first days of school, and while we are excited as ever to welcome this year’s incoming students, the season is bittersweet as it will be our last September at 174 First Avenue. The building has been sold, and we are moving next summer. Fortunately, we have found a space close by in the Glebe and are in the process of finalizing details. We are very excited about our future, but we still have a lot of work to do.

A dedicated team of current and alumni parents is working to secure the new location and ensure that it is appropriate for our needs. However, the space requires renovations to make it suitable for a preschool. As a non-profit cooperative organization, the cost of these renovations is difficult for us to manage alone. We are reaching out to our community with a request for assistance, either financial or in-kind. If you are interested in helping with the relocation, please contact our director, Karen Cameron, at goodmorningpreschool@gmail.com. We are looking for specific help with fundraising, strategic planning and light construction including cabinetry and painting, but we would welcome any assistance! If you have a skill that could be useful, want to help move furniture or just want to be involved, please let us know. Financial donations can be made online on our Go Fund Me page at gofund.me/5c1c9a7e or by reaching out to Karen directly at the email address above.

In the meantime, we wanted to share some photos and fond memories from our time at Logan-Vencta Hall at 174 First Avenue. If you have a memory you’d like to share with us, we’d love to hear it! Or if you think play-based learning with an emphasis on creativity and arts would be the right fit for your child, reach out to us. We have spaces in our nursery school, preschool and after-school programs.

We truly feel our program is special, and we hope you feel the same. Our preschool was founded by a group of parents who came together to create something amazing, and we believe our community can come together again to ensure that Good Morning Preschool continues to serve Ottawa families for generations to come.

Katherine Liston is a Glebe parent volunteer at Good Morning Creative Arts and Preschool.