Eagle’s Nest Early Learning Center is a family-run institution, with seven employees, inside the Gilpin- owned building near Gilpin K-12 school.
The center’s history began in 1994 when the community expressed the need for an early child care center. Gilpin residents came together and donated the funds to build a facility. The center has three board leaders with backgrounds in accounting, business management, and grants.
At 16, Salina Gomez began her career in early childhood education, followed by college classes and professional experiences. Gomez started as a teacher and worked her way to the director position, for which she expresses appreciation.
Gomez shared, “My favorite part of my job is being a teacher and working with the kids. They show unconditional love and help you grow as a person. They show you joy in the little things, and they always put a smile on my face even when days can be hard.”
She has worked with kids from eight weeks to six years old, and in the first years of their life, she acknowledges that teachers at Eagle’s Nest are the core of their fundamentals. “We are teaching them so much. From learning to sit up to walking and graduating to learning to talk and communicating with each other.”
Staff at Eagle’s Nest pride themselves in teaching children the importance of self-love and how to treat others. As well, they teach their early learners how to have a voice but also how to follow directions and exceed expectations. “We work on everything with them, such as social-emotional, cognitive, mathematics, literacy, physical, large, and fine motor skills. Being in the class can be so much fun and can be very rewarding!” Gomez expresses.
Needless to say, witnessing a child go from crawling to walking, completing a puzzle, writing their name for the first time at home, and finally taking their first strides to move on, makes Gomez and her staff overcome with joy. Gomez confessed that she has had endless amazing moments as an early childhood educator and that gives her reason to be grateful for all the “kiddos and their families who I have been lucky enough to be part of.”
The center offers care for children between the ages of eight weeks and five years of age. Children are divided into groups: infants between eight weeks and 18 months; toddlers into one group between 12 and 24 months and a second between 24 and 36 months; students from three to five years old are in Pre-K.
Each group has a room or space that accommodates class size and activities. The great news is that Eagle’s Nest not only serves Gilpin County children but Boulder, Jeffco, Denver, Clear Creek, and the entire Peak to Peak region.
The Eagle’s Nest staff, including potential employees, receive training to prepare them to become qualified leads. But this is only part of what makes Eagle’s Nest Learning Center special. They offer care for younger children in the community, whereas many other places will only accept kids when they are older than two years of age.
Eagle’s Nest Early Learning Center is a nonprofit organization that receives funding from grants and local fundraising. The COVID pandemic forced Eagle’s Nest to close the center for a few months during the pandemic. This led to the implementation of new policies for illnesses and the challenges of finding full-time staff.
The goal for the future is to host more fundraisers that include active community involvement and hiring enough staff to accommodate all the children on a waitlist. Adding more teachers will allow Eagle’s Nest to operate more comfortably and continue to stay open year-round, and offer longer hours of care.
Eagle’s Nest Early Learning Center is located at 10655 Highway 119 Black Hawk, Colorado, 80422. They can be reached by phone at 303-528-0895. To learn more about Eagles Nest Early Learning Center visit: www.eaglesnestelc.org or like their social media page: www.facebook.com/ EaglesNestEarlyLearningCenter.
Sponsored by Gilpin County Commissioners, with funds from the American Rescue Plan Act.