In a remarkable case of going “full circle”, longtime locals Merren and Mike Goodison have bought back the childcare centre they set up in downtown Raglan almost three decades ago.
The upper Wainui Rd couple is now enthusiastically giving the Wallis St centre a well-overdue makeover, with the outdoor playground full of new equipment and toys the children proudly show off to their parents as they come in each day.
And that’s just for starters. New fences and gates will soon be installed, and a repaint of the interior is scheduled for next month. “There’s lots of work ahead but we love it,” Merren told the Chronicle.
The couple has been away almost a decade from the Wallis St facility – now called Whaingaroa Childcare Centre – having established it back in 1997 and run it successfully for 20 years while their own three boys were growing up.
It has had two changes of ownership since they sold up in 2017 – to focus on establishing Matapihi Kindergarten in rural Te Mata – but Merren and Mike reckon they just couldn’t resist the opportunity to buy back their original centre.
Merren was busy last week sorting out a chokka store-room, and artfully creating new learning areas to encourage her young protégés’ imagination. “I’m very excited; I’m in my happy place making something beautiful for our children (to enjoy),” she says.
Before turning the dollhouse-like building – originally of all things a bakery – into Raglan’s first early childcare centre almost three decades ago, Merren was working as one of two teachers at the local kindergarten in Stewart St.
Her reasoning back then was that while the town had a kindergarten and a kohanga reo, there wasn’t an all-day facility where parents could leave their children when commuting over the divvy. Also, Raglan Kindergarten’s roll was growing so fast at the time that it couldn’t take pre-schoolers until they were four years old.
So the enterprising couple conducted a survey to see how many residents would be likely to use an early childcare centre. They got 24 positive replies, Merren recalls, and decided “that’s enough, let’s go for it!” The rest is history.
With two of her original teaching staff – Angela Kimber and Anne Snowden – now also returning as relievers, Merren says “it feels like coming back to your roots”.
Others of the Goodison family are also involved, just like in the old days.
Mike – a draughtsman who works from home – was always caretaker of the outdoors area and he has resumed that role. He and their boys used to come to the centre after work and school to help Merren clean, for which the boys got their pocket-money.
The now-adult boys and their partners all helped to get the outdoors ship-shape the weekend Merren and Mike took back ownership. The family working bee has “transformed” a tired-looking playground into an inspiring environment of discovery for the children to learn and grow, says Merren proudly.
And there’s been one particularly pleasant surprise. Lurking in a pond beneath a mess of overgrown weeds they found two turtles – one of them, Honu, who’s been there now for the full 29 years and looks to be going nowhere fast.
